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I made this for my vegetarian electrician, who called me later freaking out, thinking I actually gave him real meat. Somewhere in the back of a Jewish deli, or a Christmas Eve kitchen, or your grandmother's Shabbos table, there is a pot roast that dominates the center of the table, and people freak out about its tender, juicy vibes. This vegan pot roast recipe is exactly that, minus the part where an animal had to be sacrificed for flavor. It's a one pot meal that you can make perfectly even if you've never made seitan before.
Recipe tips tailored to what matters most to you:
Seitan is the kryptonite for gluten-free folks. Between the vital wheat gluten and the flour in the braising liquid, this one's a hard pass if you're avoiding gluten.
You can build this whole roast days ahead of time, similar to how I make my vegan cholent, which makes it a forgiving make-ahead option for serving on a hotplate during Shabbat.
Soak and boil ⅔ cup of dried chickpeas instead of using canned. Rinse them once cooked and use them the same way in the dough.
Add just about any veggie you can think of to this pot roast to make it even more nourishing. Just add more delicate ones in (spinach, Brussels sprouts etc.) towards the end of the cook time.
If you can’t find pearl onions, boiler onions or even diced onions are fine to swap in.
When the vital wheat gluten goes into the food processor, it needs the full processing time to develop legit structure. Cutting it short means a less meaty, denser texture that will get tougher as it cooks.
Medium-low heat with the lid on for the full 40 minutes lets the seitan and vegetables cook evenly without the liquid reducing too fast or the potatoes falling apart before the carrots are tender.
Dirt and grit loooove to hide between the layers of a leek. Slice them first, then rinse well in a bowl of water, letting any sediment sink to the bottom before you lift the leeks out.
Oodles more tips, step-by-step recipe photos, info on weird ingredients, and FAQs are all still here. I just tucked 'em out of the way so you can start cooking sooner.
When I first went vegan back in 2001, we invited my mom over for a Jewish holiday at our house. I was making vegan potato kugel, tzimmes, vegan matzo ball soup, and other essentials.
Anyway, m'dear ol mommer asked if she could bring her non-veg pot roast, and I was sorry to have to tell her "absolutely not". That meat pot roast stinks up a whole house with the essence of death. Ugh. I love you mom, but no to turning my house into a carcass steam room. I remember the smell lingering in my childhood home for days like a dark stanky cloud of death.
We weren't about to invite that into our home with our brand new baby (who's now an adult and is still vegan BTW).
Luckily, this vegan pot roast has all the tenderness, insanely deep, slow simmered umami and melt in your mouth veggies that make pot roast lovable in the first place, with no harm coming to a sweet cow who doesn't belong in a pot.
Around the roast sits pretty much a full holiday side dish bonanza. Baby potatoes, pearl onions, leeks, whole garlic cloves, and carrots cut into big rustic chunks all go into the same pot, so by the time everything finishes braising, the vegetables have soaked up all that wine-and-herb liquid too. One pot, minimal cleanup, maximum eyes rolling back in your head effects.
Jump to:
Why you'll adore this seitan pot roast recipe
🥕 One Pot, Whole Holiday Spread: The seitan cooks right on top of the veggies in the same Dutch oven. You get your main and your sides in 1 shot, and way fewer dishes piled in the sink.
🕎 Actually Works for Every Holiday on Your List: Hanukkah, Shabbat, Christmas, Easter, Sunday dinners, and pretty much whatever you have got going on. This works great for a wild number of holidays without being weird.
Tested and Approved Worldwide: Over 1,000 recipe testers helped me tweak this recipe to perfection with their feedback. It went out as something I've made successfully for years in my kitchen, and it came back a certified holiday banger.
I'm on my knees staring weirdly into your eyes, asking you in a soothing voice to be my taste-testing partner in crime. Sign up for the recipe testing crew and get early access to new recipes before they're published.
Vegan Pot Roast Ingredients
Chickpeas
Chickpeas get blended with the other wet ingredients before the gluten goes in. They diversify the protein that make the seitan more tender and less rubbery. You can 100% swap them out for white beans as I do in my vegan chicken recipe.
If you have time and want to save some money, you can soak and boil ⅔ cups of dried chickpeas, and once cooked and rinsed, use them in place of the canned ones.
Miso Paste
Why season with plain ol' salt or tamari when you can give the seitan much more complex meaty flavors with some miso? My personal choice is white miso, but any kind, or even some doenjang, or taucu can work in its place.
Vital Wheat Gluten
This is the easiest way to make a meaty seitan without having to wash the starch out of bread flour for the rest of your afternoon, a method I show off in my seitan masterclass. I recommend getting yourself a big bag so you can make seitan bacon, vegan carne asada, or vegan corned beef.
Nutritional Yeast
Despite what some companies claim, there's really not one brand that's miles better than any other. Get whatever's cheapest. Flakes and powder both work fine here.
Red Wine
A bunch of wine goes into the braising liquid, giving the finished sauce depth and a slight acidity that makes the seitan and vegetables super-robust tasting. Choose a dryish red you would actually drink (if you do that), since the flavor concentrates as it cooks down.
Lots of wines and spirits are secretly made with animal-based stuff like egg whites, gelatin, casein, or isinglass (fish bladders, yuck), and it's never on the label, because the world is out to get us and we should all just hide out in your crawlspace with snacks until the collapse of civilization is behind us. Until then, look up your bottle on Barnivore.com before you buy to make sure it's vegan.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
Variations
Seitan Brisket
Want to do a roasted meaty thing and not a stovetop one? My Jewish vegan brisket is a smoky, sliceable seitan roast braised in red wine with miso and veggies, and it'll have your non-veg unc (who's a real life chopped unc BTW) forgetting to ask where the "real" brisket is.
Veggie Cholent
You know what the heck you can do? You can use the seitan from this pot roast recipe nestled with kishke to make a killer vegan cholent with all the fun bells and whistles!
Grab my easy-yo-use app that builds your whole week with real, chef-tested vegan dinners in 30 seconds, customized to your budget, time, and taste, with a shopping list sorted by aisle.
How to make
Here's every step with photos, so your pot roast comes out looking like it came from a caterer and not like a science fair volcano. If you've got no chill (or your in-laws are already ringing the doorbell), the easy-to-print recipe card is waiting at the bottom of the page.
Step One
Pureebraham Lincoln:
Combine the chickpeas, onion, garlic, beet, tomato paste, tahini, maple syrup, miso paste, and water in a food processor. Blend for 90 seconds until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
Step Two
GluTEN Commandments:
Add the vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, and poultry seasoning. Process for another 90 seconds, which feels like an unreasonable amount of time, but that is exactly how long it takes for the gluten to develop into a proper dough.
Step Three
Slab City:
Let the dough rest for 10 minutes so the gluten relaxes. Then shape it into a flat loaf about 1 inch tall, 4 inches wide, and 10-12 inches long.
Step Four
Stabby Stabby:
Using a lightly oiled knife, slice the loaf into ½ inch strips, keeping everything together in one piece for now.
Step Five
Sautéder Night Live:
Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Once hot, about 90 seconds, add the onions, leeks, garlic, carrots, potatoes, bay leaves, rosemary, and sage. Cook for 8 minutes until the vegetables just barely start to brown.
Step Six
Wine-ona Ryder
Lay the sliced seitan dough over the vegetables in the pot.
In a pitcher or bowl, whisk together the wine, stock, tamari, and flour until smooth.
Step Seven
The Seitanic Bible:
Pour the liquid over everything in the dutch oven, cover, and cook over medium-low heat for 70 minutes until the seitan is firm but not tough, and the potatoes and carrots are fork tender.
Step Eight
Roastbusters:
Break apart any sections of seitan that are still connected using a sharp knife, then arrange everything in a serving dish with the vegetables, or serve straight from the pot if it is a good-looking one. Finish with fresh sage and chives.
Serving Ideas
Start your Shabbat or holiday dinner the old-school way with a schmear of vegan chopped liver on crackers or vegan challah. It's the appy that makes your bubbe do happy clappy.
Rock this with a bowl of sweet, sticky tzimmes, a pile of kasha varnishkes, or a tray of vegan potato knishes, and nobody's leaving the table hungry.
Making this for Hanukkah? Finish with a plate of jelly-filled vegan sufganiyot, obv. For Shabbat, a fluffy chocolate vegan babka or a tray of vegan rugelach seals the deal.
Top tips
- Do Not Skip the Full 90 Seconds: When the vital wheat gluten goes into the food processor, it needs the full processing time to develop properly. Cutting it short means a less meaty, denser texture that will get tougher as it cooks.
- Keep the Braise at a Gentle Simmer: Medium-low heat with the lid on for the full cook time is the move here, no cranking it up because you're hangry. Rush it, and the liquid boils off, the potatoes turn to mush, you risk scorching things, and the seitan itself can come out spongey and weird.
- Wash Your Leeks Thoroughly: Leeks are basically little sandboxes with a veggie wrapped around them, and dirt's favorite game is hide and seek between every layer. Slice them first, swish them around in a large bowl of cool water, then lift them out so the grit stays at the bottom instead of crunching between your teeth at Shabbat dinner.
Recipe FAQs
For sure! You can prepare this whole thing days ahead of time, and it makes a forgiving thing to serve during Shabbat on a hotplate.
Apple cider is a great swap here, bringing a little fruity sweetness and acidity that plays really nicely with the root veggies and sage. You can also use a full-bodied unsweetened vegetable stock with a splash of balsamic vinegar for similar enough flavor without the alcohol. Neither one is identical to wine, but they both make this pot roast awesome.
🧊 In the Fridge
Store the roast and vegetables together in an airtight container for up to 4 days. The flavors continue to deepen as it sits, so leftovers are genuinely great.
❄️ In the Freezer
This freezes well for up to 3 months in a sealed, freezer-safe container. The potatoes may soften slightly upon thawing, but the seitan and sauce hold up amazingly well.
🔥 Reheating
Warm gently in a covered pot over low heat with a splash of extra stock or water to loosen the sauce, stirring occasionally until heated through.
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Vegan Pot Roast Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Seitan:
- 15 oz. canned chickpeas drained and rinsed
- ½ cup onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 cup beet shredded
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons tahini
- 4 teaspoons maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons miso paste
- ½ cup water
- 2 cups vital wheat gluten
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
The Roast:
- 4 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 cups boiler onions or pearl onions
- 2 cups leeks sliced, washed, and rinsed
- 8 cloves garlic peeled
- 3 cups carrots peeled and cut into 3 inch sections
- 3 cups fingerling potatoes or baby potatoes cut in half
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 8 leaves sage
- 2 cups red wine
- 1 cup unsalted vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons tamari or other soy sauce
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
Optional Garnishes:
- 8 fresh sage leaves
- 1 tablespoon chives minced
Instructions
- Combine the chickpeas, onion, garlic, beet, tomato paste, tahini, maple syrup, miso pastem, and water in a food processor. Blend for 90 seconds until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Add the vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, and poultry seasoning. Continue to process for an additional 90 seconds (which seems like a lot, but TRUST THE PROCESS) until a dough with well-developed gluten forms.
- Allow the dough to rest for ten minutes to relax the gluten. Then form into a long, flat loaf about 1 inch tall by 3 inches wide by 8 inches long.
- Using a lightly oiled knife, cut the dough into ½ inch strips, keeping the loaf together for now.
- Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. After 90 seconds, when the oil is hot, add the onions, leeks, garlic, carrots, potatoes, bay leaves, rosemary, and sage. Sauté for 8 minutes until the vegetables begin to brown very lightly.
- Add the sections of the seitan dough to the Dutch oven over the vegetables.
- In a pitcher or bowl, whisk together the wine, stock, tamari and flour. Pour the liquid into the dutch oven, then cover and cook over medium low heat for 70 minutes until the seitan feels firm but not stiff, and the potatoes and carrots are fork tender.
- Break up any connected sections of seitan with a sharp knife and arrange it in an attractive serving dish with the vegetables, or if you have a nice looking Dutch oven, you can serve it right out of the pot. Garnish with fresh sage and chives.
Notes
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