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This holiday season, try my vegan glutenfree holiday roast! It’s made with a mix of protein-rich chickpeas and tofu and comes filled with roasted vegetables and features a sweet and sticky glaze. Vegan, Gluten-free, nut-free!
The holiday season is SO CLOSE and like every year I add a few mains to the blog collection. Try my Vegan Nut roast Meatloaf or my Lentil Quinoa Loaf. Those were highly popular last year.
This year I am going for a glutenfree holiday roast made with chickpeas and tofu! This roast is rich and hearty and comes with a roasted vegetable filling and a sweet maple glaze for that umami. The mix comes together easily in a food processor and is gluten-free, nut-free and lentil-free!
The chickpeas and tofu make a sturdy base. Tofu, chickpeas add volume, tofu makes it chewy a bit like seitan, rice flour and starch act as binders making the dough easy to work with. Make it into a cylinder roll or a stuffed roll. The glaze balances out the flavor so you get rich umami, creamy sweet roasted veg and a well seasoned savory “chickpea roast” all in one bite!
Serve it with my vegan gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce or pick any of the sides I listed at the end of the post!
More mains for the holidays:
- Lentil Quinoa Loaf
- Lentil Shepherd’s Pie
- Chickpea Veggie Loaf
- Shepherd’s Pie with Chickpeas
- Cauliflower Alfredo, Spinach, Artichoke Lasagna
- Easy Vegan Veggie Lasagna
- Grilled Portobello with Garlic Sauce
Vegan Gluten-free Holiday Roast
Ingredients
For the roast:
- 15 Oz can chickpeas, drained , or 1 1/4 cup of cooked chickpeas
- 6 ounces firm tofu , pressed for 10 minutes and cubed
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch or tapioca starch
- 3 tablespoons rice flour or you can also use chickpea flour
- 2 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning, or use more of the herbs below
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
- 1 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce, , see subs in notes
For the glaze:
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary or 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary chopped
- 2 teaspoons Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 1 teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar
for the stuffing
- 1.5 Cups or more Glutenfree stuffing or roasted veggies of choice
Instructions
For the stuffing:
- You can use any stuffing of choice, I use roasted root vegetables. (Fennel, sweet potato, leek, Golden beet chopped into equal size pieces, tossed in oil, salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary in a baking dish and baked until Golden)
For the Roast
- Press the tofu for 10 minutes if you haven't already. Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and process until the mixture is smooth and there aren't any chickpea pieces or tofu pieces there. Process for 30 seconds, then scrape and process again. It will become a pasty dough kind of consistency. If it is too crumbly, add in a tsp or 2 of water/broth and process again. See pictures for consistency.
- Transfer the mixture to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Use a spatula to spread it out into a square or a rectangle about 8 inches in width.
- Add the stuffing of choice and then roll the roast over. Use your parchment to roll as the mixture will be sticky, use parchment to bring the ends of the chickpea mixture together and then seal it using the spatula.
- You can also seal the open ends. I like to leave it open.
- Keep the parchment on the rolled roast and bake at 385 degrees Fahrenheit ( 200 deg C) for 30 minutes. Then remove the roast from the oven. Uncover the roast(if it’s too cracked, just roll it so the bottom I cracked side is top now for the glaze)
- Mix your glaze and brush all over and continue to bake for another 15-20 minutes. Let your roast cool at least 15 minutes before trying to slice. Use a really sharp knife or a serrated knife and slice.
- Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy , cranberry sauce and other holiday fixings of choice.You can make the roast ahead. Bake until ready to glaze and refrigerate. Add the glaze and bake when needed.
Video
Notes
- Vegan Worcestershire sauce: use a mix of tamari sauce, balsamic vinegar, and molasses
- chickpeas : use other white beans
- tofu: this would be tricky to substitute as it helps make the roast chewy. You can use more beans but the roast will be very pasty.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ingredients:
- the base of this vegan roast is a mix of chickpeas and tofu
- rice flour and cornstarch helps the roast mix to hold together
- my magic blend for this vegan roast is a mix of poultry seasoning, thyme, rosemary, sage and oregano along with onion and garlic powder
- the glaze is a sweet and salty power-blend of maple syrup, balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire Sauce
- filling: you can use any stuffing of choice, I use roasted vegetables
Tips:
- The gluten-free roast will keep well for about 5 days in the fridge when properly stored
- Feel free to add some sunflower seeds to the mix for some crunch
- You can use tapioca starch instead of cornstarch and chickpea flour instead of rice flour
How to make Glutenfree Vegan Roast
Make the roast. Press the tofu for 10 minutes if you haven’t already. Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and process until the mixture is smooth and there aren’t any chickpea pieces or tofu pieces there. It will become a pasty dough kind of consistency. Process in 1 minute batches
Transfer the mixture to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Use a spatula to spread it out into a square or a rectangle about 8 inches in width.
Add the stuffing of choice and then roll the roast over. Use your parchment to bring the ends of the chickpea mixture together and then seal it using the spatula.
You can also seal the open ends. I like to leave it open. Keep the parchment on the rolled roast and bake at 385 degrees Fahrenheit ( 200 deg C) for 30 minutes. Then remove the roast from the oven.
Mix your glaze and brush all over and continue to bake for another 15-25 minutes. Let your roast cool at least 15 minutes before trying to slice. The top skin will crack because of drying faster than the rest of the loaf. But it doesn’t affect the sturdyness of the loaf. Use a really sharp knife or a serrated knife and slice.
Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and other holiday fixings of choice.
Sides to serve with this gluten-free holiday roast:
This roast would go really well with Roasted Brussel Sprouts or Kabocha Squash. Mashed Sweet Potatoes or regular Mashed Potatoes would also go excellently. If you’re feeling adventurous, serve this roast with my Indian Mashed Potatoes
Thank you so much for this recipe! I am thinking of subbing the chickpeas for shredded jackfruit for added texture. Do you think that will effect how the loaf holds its shape?
Jackfruit won’t bind as well. Maybe add just a few white beans in as well with the jackfruit
I made this as part of our Vegan Christmas Feast yesterday – and it was not only a huge success – but surpassed my expectations. This was so delicious even though I made a ghastly mistake by adding the entire 454 g (16 oz) of firm tofu. It still baked and cooked through nicely. I couldn’t find vegan Worcestershire Sauce so I substituted with a mixture of equal parts balsamic vinegar, molasses, and soy sauce. We’re not allergic to gluten or wheat so I used all-purpose Robin Hood flour instead of rice flour or chickpea flour. For the stuffing I used roasted sweet potatoes, fennel, and shallots. We had this as the pièce de résistance of course 🙂 and served it along with vegan scalloped potatoes, carrot & parsnip mash, popovers (which weren’t entirely vegan), and gravy. Thank you for this wonderful recipe – it will always be our pièce de résistance for Christmas now. Seasons Greetings to You and Yours and Happy Holidays.
Sounds delicious, Happy Holidays!
Made this for Christmas dinner & it was fabulous! Really quite simple to put together & it’s going to be fun experimenting with different fillings & such. Thank you so much for sharing!
Happy Holidays! So glad you enjoyed it.
We made this for our Holiday dinner and it was the best holiday roast we have had! So delicious. We made it yesterday and just reheated it with the glaze today. Turned out perfect
Happy Holidays! Thank you for commenting.
Greetings,
This recipe sounds divine!
Can I replace the tofu with sunflower seeds? Or what is another option?
I prefer not to use tofu, and we don’t have the chickpea or pumpkin tofu as options where I live (Nassau, Bahamas). Thanks in advance.
You can use more chickpeas and some soaked sunflower seeds(make sure to process them well else they will be textured), some chickpea flour and 2-3 tbsp non dairy yogurt to make up the bulk and the moisture.