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This is seriously the ultimate vegan turkey recipe for Thanksgiving! It’s a succulent, crispy-skinned bad boy that’s packed with hyper-flavorful stuffing. If you’ve been looking for a Thanksgiving centerpiece that will also make the most unbelievable vegan Thanksgiving sandwiches for the rest of the holiday weekend, well, m’love, you are going to be psyched beyond words with this one!
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If someone who wants a peaceful and yummy holiday meal describes you, the recipe you are looking at is going to be absolutely epic.
Yes, I know it has a few steps, but nothing that requires crazy skill, though, really. It's taken a ton of testing to get it just right, but here’s what I wanted this vegan turkey to be like: a juicy, not rubbery seitan base, crammed with perfectly seasoned stuffing, and that crispy, lightly sweet golden yuba skin.
Is it going to go amazing with a slice of vegan cornbread and some roasted carrot lentil soup? Uh, yeah, obviously. It’s going to make you want to start having Thanksgiving like once a month. Let’s get cooking—you’re going to love how easy this recipe is to nail on your first try!
Jump to:
🥰 Why this is the best vegan turkey recipe in the galaxy
✊ Vegan AF: Like all of my vegan Thanksgiving recipes, this one doesn’t harm a single adorable bird.
🔬 Perfect Seitan Texture: There’s a good reason I worked out the balance of gluten and chickpea flour and the process of pre-roasting, simmering, and second roasting for this recipe. It gives you incredible flavor and the best texture possible.
👨🎨 You Don’t Need to be a Skilled Artisan: Unlike my tofu turkey that has to be carefully crafted into the shape of a human baby (yes, I am serious), this recipe doesn’t require any fancy sculpting skills. It’s just a straight-up delicious loaf-shaped vegan turkey, not some kind of complicated art project…
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all of the vegan recipes I publish, after perfecting the recipe, I shared it with a global team of recipe testers. They all replicated it perfectly. So you can trust that this vegan turkey is a winner, no matter where you're cooking it!
🍗 Ingredients for making a vegan turkey roast
Vegetable Stock
I recommend using unsalted vegetable stock for this recipe. Unless you make it, it can be hard to find fully unsalted in grocery stores. So if all you can get is salted or low-sodium vegetable stock, you may want to cut back on the tamari in the recipe a little bit.
Poultry Seasoning
No, you wild west goof and spoof, poultry seasoning is NOT made out of poultry. It’s called that because it is intended FOR using on poultry! But that doesn’t mean you can't season up your vegan poultry with it, right? Who’s gonna stop ya? If you can’t find it, just mix together equal parts sage, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, and ground rosemary, and use that in the recipe instead.
Nutritional Yeast
Wait, you don’t know about nooch? If you haven’t tried my vegan fajitas smothered the heck out of with vegan nacho cheese, well, then I cry for you every day. The small bit in this recipe adds a rich umami base flavor to the vegan turkey. If you can’t find any, you can use a small amount of mushroom powder (like half the amount) to still give the tofu turkey a nice savory taste.
Chickpea Flour
Chickpea flour, or besan, is a staple in Indian cooking. I use it all the time for making onion bhaji. Anyway, the point here is to dilute the protein of the gluten flour, making the final vegan turkey more tender and less rubbery. If you can’t get chickpea flour, you can actually use all-purpose flour or sorghum flour in its place in this recipe, and your vegan bird will be just about as yummy.
Vital Wheat Gluten
Vital wheat gluten is the main protein found in wheat and is essential for making my maple-glazed vegan ham, and my vegan chicken recipe. Anyway, what’s nice about it is that, unlike the washed flour method that I demonstrate in my seitan masterclass, the gluten is already extracted, which is a heck of a lot less work for ya.
Vegan Stuffing
So listen, you don’t have to fill the seitan turkey, but in my opinion, that’s a terrible missed opportunity for more flavor and personality. You can make this recipe using either my vegan stuffing that has chestnuts in it, or my vegan cornbread stuffing recipe that has pecans and stewed cranberries up in the place. Either way, you will be so psyched with the results.
Bouillon Paste
Bouillon paste, such as Better Than Bouillon’s No-Chicken, which I love to use to add chicken-y flavor to my vegan drumsticks, intensifies the savory depth of the broth. You can also use bouillon cubes or powder, adjusting the quantity to taste.
Yuba Skin (or Rice Paper)
Yuba skin, also known as tofu skin or beancurd sheets, is made from the thin layer formed on the surface of heated soy milk. You can find it at Asian grocery stores or online. It comes either dried or frozen, but either way what you want are the bigger sheets, not strips. I find the frozen stuff is more forgiving to work with. It crisps up beautifully in the oven, mimicking the skin of a traditional roast turkey.
Rice paper (like what you would use to make Vietnamese spring rolls or my rice paper salad recipe) is an easier-to-find alternative that works well if yuba skin is unavailable, though rice paper skin has a more stretchy texture and sort of merges with the surface of the loaf as it bakes, so if you can get yuba, go for that instead.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Maple-Mustard Glazed Vegan Turkey:
If you loved the maple mustard tempeh sandwich I used to serve on our food truck, and teach in my Vegan Sandwich Hall of Fame cooking class, you are gonna love your vegan turkey this way. Ditch the brown sugar in the basting liquid and sub in a generous pour of pure maple syrup. This is great to serve on a grilled baguette with some vegan Kewpie mayo and all the fixins.
Sausage Stuffed Vegan Turkey:
Mix crumbled vegan sausage or chopped smoked vegan breakfast sausage into the stuffing for an even more meaty, high-protein vibe. This is perfect for you since you are a muscle man who’s gonna hulk out of your shirt and run straight through a brick wall like it’s made out of butter…
📖 How to make a vegan turkey roast
Nail this plant-based Thanksgiving centerpiece on your first shot by following these step-by-step photos with helpful tips. Or scroll down to the bottom of this page for the easy-to-print recipe card.
Step One
We Dough What We Want!
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, mixer, or food processor, combine the vegetable stock, tamari, coriander, poultry seasoning, nutritional yeast, chickpea flour, and vital wheat gluten until the mixture is well combined. Let the dough relax and hydrate for 10 minutes.
✅ If you did the initial mixing in the food processor, you can just let the dough rest right in the food processor bowl.
Step Two
Processor Go-Brrr!
Place the seitan dough in a food processor with an S-blade, and blitz it for 2 minutes to activate the gluten. This gives the dough that perfect chewy texture you’re after.
Step Three
Baking and Entry:
With wet hands, shape your stuffing into a log about 4-5 inches (10-12 cm) wide. Then, wrap the seitan dough around it, making sure it’s fully enclosed. Place the stuffed seitan dough onto a lightly oiled, parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake the stuffed seitan in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, just until the outside feels a bit firm.
Step Four
Seitan Turkey Hot Tub:
In a very wide Dutch oven or thick-bottomed pot, bring the water, bouillon paste, and tamari (or other soy sauce of your choice) to a boil. Carefully lower in the baked seitan. Immediately reduce the heat to low, and let it simmer, covered, for 40 minutes.
✅ The seitan should just be simmering in a very hot bath, not boiling. Boiling may cause your seitan to develop a spongy texture which will make you go through the 5 stages of grief. I am not really looking forward to the 2nd stage, where you get angry at me because you didn’t follow the directions. So please do so!
✅ If you have one, place a large steamer basket at the bottom of the pot. This can prevent the bottom of the roast from burning from contact with the pot.
In Drain in the Membrane:
While the seitan steams, reduce your oven’s temperature to 350°F (175°C).
Carefully drain the seitan in a colander and let it sit and cool for 15 minutes to make it easier to handle.
Step Five
Yuba-Dooba-Doo!
Soak the yuba sheets in water until they’re nice and pliable, then squeeze out the excess water. Lay one sheet on a lightly oiled, parchment-lined baking sheet, and place the drained seitan on top.
Wrap the seitan in the yuba skin, making sure it’s completely covered. Use the second yuba sheet to cover any seams, tucking it under the sides and bottom of your seitan turkey.
✅ Don't stress if the yuba tears at all. You can even add a few layers if it seems to be breaking up a bit. Once basted and roasted, it will look great anyway.
Step Six
Get Sauced:
Mix together the brown sugar, mustard, cider vinegar, apple cider, pepper, thyme, and olive oil using either a blender or the tines of a fork in a small bowl.
Step Seven
Don’t Baste your Thyme:
Brush the seitan turkey with the basting liquid, keeping some for later.
Roast the wrapped seitan turkey at 350°F (175°C) for 20-25 minutes, brushing with the remaining basting liquid halfway through, and again a couple of minutes before taking it out of the oven.
Step Eight
Herb Your Enthusiasm:
Garnish your roasted vegan turkey with freshly chopped parsley and serve it sliced with a generous helping of vegan gravy, and some maple balsamic roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots.
🥧 Vegan Thanksgiving Menu Suggestions
This stuffed vegan turkey is downright fantastic as the center of your holiday table with all the fixins.
I usually start a cozy butternut squash soup or some Turkish lentil soup.
For something a little different from the traditional green bean casserole on the Thanksgiving table, take my zeytinyağlı taze fasulye for a spin. It's a simple and downright delicious Turkish green bean side.
Rock out with some vegan marshmallow topped candied yams, or Filipino kalabasa, which has got spinach and kabocha squash in a mildly spiced coconut milk broth.
Of course, you have to rock the essentials, like bourbon cranberry sauce, or Turkish-style cranberry relish. And life is short, so you gotta choose one of these RIGHT NOW: either sage and garlic Hasselback potatoes, or vegan mashed potatoes, which are either dripping with mushroom gravy, or vegan sausage gravy.
Finish it all off with a slice of vegan apple pie, some of this heavenly pumpkin flan, some vegan pumpkin muffins with cardamom glaze, or vegan sweet potato muffins.
👉Top tips
- Don’t Skip This Step: I know what you are thinking. Why even let the dough sit and then run it through the food processor? Why not just wrap the filling and immediately start roasting it? Processing the seitan dough in a food processor for a couple of minutes is crucial to achieving the chewy meaty texture you want, so don’t rush and skip it.
- Or this Step Either! Seems annoying to bake, simmer, and then bake some more, right? Well, first off, it's really not a whole lot of work. But the reason for it is important. The initial baking creates a tiny crust that prevents the simmering dough from expanding a whole lot while simmering. This gives this vegan turkey loaf the perfect structure.
- The Right Simmer is Key
When simmering your seitan, keep the heat low and steady. A gentle simmer ensures that the seitan cooks through without becoming tough or rubbery. High heat can cause it to expand too quickly, leading to a spongy or even brainy texture. 🤮 - Soak and Squeeze Your Yuba
Before wrapping your seitan in yuba sheets, be sure to soak them in water until soft and pliable, then squeeze out as much water as possible. This helps the yuba adhere to the seitan, creating a skin that crisps up nicely in the oven. - Loaf Removal: Transferring your baked seitan loaf can be tricky. You can 100% serve it straight from the baking pan with garnishes covering up the rest of the pan, use large cake transfer tools to move it, or cut it into sections before transferring.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
While this seitan recipe is made with vital wheat gluten, I have a tofu loaf recipe that can be made gluten-free if you use a gluten-free flour mix in it and gluten-free breadcrumbs. And seriously, it’s insanely yummy!
🥶 Refrigeration
Once your vegan roast has cooled completely, store it in an airtight container in the fridge. It will stay fresh for up to five days. Make sure the container is sealed well to keep the roast moist and flavorful.
Freezing
For longer storage, you can freeze the vegan turkey roast. Place it in a freezer-safe, airtight container. It will keep well for up to three months. To thaw, move it to the fridge and let it defrost slowly overnight.
⏳ Thawing
When you’re ready to enjoy your frozen vegan turkey roast, transfer it from the freezer to the fridge and allow it to thaw overnight. For a quicker thaw, you can let it sit at room temperature for a few hours, but be sure to cook it immediately after thawing.
🔥 Stovetop Reheating
To reheat your vegan turkey roast on the stovetop, slice it and place the slices in a pan with a bit of vegetable broth or gravy. Heat, covered, over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, turning the slices halfway through, until they are heated through and tender.
⚡️ Microwave Reheating
For a quicker option, place slices of vegan roast turkey on a microwave-safe plate. Cover with a microwave-safe lid or another plate to retain moisture. Microwave on medium power for two to three minutes, checking every minute to avoid overcooking.
🔥 Oven Reheating
To reheat your vegan turkey roast in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Place the roast slices or the whole roast in an oven-safe dish and add a little vegetable broth or gravy to keep it moist. Cover the dish with a lid or parchment paper, and bake for fifteen to twenty minutes until heated through. If reheating a whole roast, you may need to extend the time by 5-10 minutes.
✌️My faves to serve with this seitan turkey:
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Get your hands on seriously crowd-pleasing vegan Thanksgiving menus, including detailed video guidance from Chef Adam Sobel.
Stuffed Vegan Turkey Roast with Crispy Skin
Ingredients
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 3 tablespoons tamari
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- ¾ cup chickpea flour
- 3 ½ cups vital wheat gluten
- 6 cups vegan stuffing
- 12 cups water
- ¼ cup tamari
- 3 tablespoons vegetable bouillon paste I prefer Better Than Bouillon’s No-Chicken bouillon paste
- 3 large sheets yuba skin or several sheets of rice paper
Basting Liquid:
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons tamari
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons apple cider or apple juice
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon thyme
- ⅓ cup olive oil
To Garnish and Serve:
- Chopped parsley
- Vegan gravy
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
- In a large bowl, stand mixer, or food processor, mix together the vegetable stock (or water), tamari, coriander, poultry seasoning, nutritional yeast, chickpea flour, and vital wheat gluten until fully combined. Let the dough rest and hydrate for 10 minutes.
- Place the seitan dough into a food processor fitted with an S-blade, and process it for 2 full minutes to agitate the gluten.
- Using wet hands, compress your stuffing into a 4-5 inch (10-12 cm) wide log shape, and then cover it completely, on all sides (including the bottom), in the seitan dough. Place the stuffed seitan onto a lightly oiled parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20-25 minutes until the outside feels just slightly firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside.
- Bring the water, bouillon paste, and tamari to a boil in a Dutch oven or thick-bottomed pot. Carefully add the baked seitan into the pot, and immediately reduce to a low simmer, cover the pot, and cook for 40 minutes.
- Lower your oven temperature to 350°F (175°C). Carefully drain your seitan in a colander.
- Rehydrate two sheets of yuba skin in water until pliable. Squeeze out excess water.
- Lay one yuba sheet on a lightly oiled parchment-lined baking sheet. Place the drained stuffed seitan onto the yuba.
- Wrap the vegan turkey in the yuba skin, covering it completely. Use the second yuba sheet from the top, wrapping under the sides and bottom of the seitan turkey to cover any visible seams.
- Either in a blender or using the tines of a fork in a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, mustard, cider vinegar, apple cider, pepper, thyme, and olive oil to form the basting liquid.
- Brush the seitan turkey with the basting liquid, reserving some of it for a second basting, and roast at 350°F (175°C) for 20-25 minutes. Brush with additional basting liquid at the halfway point, and again just a couple of minutes before removing it from the oven.
- Garnish the roasted vegan turkey with chopped fresh herbs and serve it sliced with a gravy of your choice.
Notes
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Sarah says
This makes a lot! I was skeptical with the rice paper but the texture when cooked was very cool. It’s not an everyday dish, but perfect for a special occasion like Thanksgiving.
Deb Z says
Looks fantastic again Adam! Again, can I cook this in an InstantPot? If yes, for how long, etc.
Thanks again!
Adam Sobel says
The simmering/steaming part you can 100% do in an IP. Same amount of time as in a regular pot.Go with a lower heat setting so it doesn't expand and become spongy on you. You will still need to wrap and roast it.
hg says
Can't think of a better Vegan Thanksgiving meal. Makes quite a bit, so we ate some for dinner, I did a test freeze / thaw, which worked out perfectly. I froze them in portion sizes, and have a few great dinners pretty much ready to go. Worth the effort.