The last couple of days have been gorgeous in Vegas. Dark, rainy & cold. Out of character for Vegas, but exactly the kind of weather to get me excited about a big roast.

The climate where I grew up in Australia was always torturous around the holiday season. Putting on the oven all afternoon in the middle of summer just felt so wrong. I don’t know how my mother slaved in the kitchen all day in the tropical heat & still kept a smile on her face for us all at the table.

I’m talking about X-mas of course since Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated outside of this continent. In Australia X-mas day is it, a one-day “holiday season” pretty much. You save up for, prepare for, & get excited for just one day. You make a huge meal, exchange gifts & it’s all over for another year. Over here in the US there is a real holiday season. It starts with Halloween, then before the candy’s gone it’s time to prepare for Thanksgiving already, & if the Thanksgiving celebration didn’t go to plan you get another chance to do it all again at X-mas only a month after that.

So, I decided to actually celebrate Thanksgiving strangely. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for, so why not have a day dedicated to remembering all that’s good in our lives? Also, of course I’ll use any excuse to make a feast..

Foodies, skip to here- It started early in the afternoon. Waking up late in the day hungover, I started prepping the kitchen while watching the Macys Parade on tv. On the menu for the evening was Tofurkey with apple nut stuffing & roast vegetables. I was keen on trying the Tofurky-brand roast but on seeing the ingredient list & some poor reviews I decided to just make my own from scratch. I saw a few recipes online but ended up winging it & making it up as I went.

A few days ago I put a couple o’ blocks of tofu in the freezer. Freezing tofu is a trick I’ve only learned recently. It gives a different texture, a little chewier (more turkey-like I was thinking?) & helps remove moisture. I started defrosting the blocks Thanksgiving-eve & yesterday started using it like this..

I used 1 & a half blocks of tofu for this recipe, my new-favourite brand that I showed back HERE, Trader Joes Extra Firm.

I mashed it up as fine as I could, adding a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of brown/english mustard, & a few sprinkles of rosemary & thyme.

My only tin is loaf-shaped. You could get really creative with shapes for this one or try shape a turkey, but since I was a little unsure of its “hold together” power I thought simple was best for the first attempt.. besides what’s the point of imitating a turkey really? We need to start a new tradition.

I gave it a light oil & pressed tofu-mash into the base & sides. I put some plastic over it, put a weight on it (a jar of sauce was perfect) & stuck it in the fridge while I started on the stuffing.

Stuffing. I love stuffing. When I was younger, I would go straight for it, the turkey thought-of as a mere “stuffing vessel”. The leftovers make awesome sandwiches too. Stuffing & mayo on bread. It’s an embarrassing craving to still have as an adult, stuffing after all is like 80% breadcrumbs anyway, so it’s like bread on bread. Sounds so wrong but I love it.

So I started frying up some onion on a low heat, added more rosemary, thyme & lots of chopped nuts . I went for a mix of pecans, hazelnuts & almonds.

Once the smell started moving through the apartment I added some chopped apple, celery & some garlic.

Then of course came the breadcrumbs. Stuffing complete!

The tofu-shell was pretty compressed by now & ready to accept stuffing.

I shoveled it in there, keeping it as central as possible.

Then the top tofu layer was poured over & the stuffing centre was buried.

Press it all down with a weight on top & it’s complete, ready for the oven.

I put the tofurkey in a low-heat oven with a foil hat while I started on the veges.

Not much to say about roasting vegetables .. well not the way I do them. They’re beautiful, colourful vegetables & require very little help. The potatoes & tomatoes got a little salt & thyme, the carrots got a little sugar, the zucchini a little rosemary…

So as the veges went in the oven I took the foil hat off the tofurkey & gave it a baste of orange juice, mustard, miso & soy sauce (I would’ve used worcestershire if I had it, but substituted soy).

After a further 20mins in the oven the top was browned, so I flipped it out of the loaf tin, basted the “underside” & put it back in the oven on a tray to brown the new top.

Gravy, & it’s time to eat. I was so starving by this stage I didn’t take many more photos.

I’d definitely call it a success. It was damn good & I’ll be making another tofurkey. Like I said, X-mas is only a month away so we get to do it all again. I wouldn’t change the recipe at all.

Oh, & today for lunch & dinner I had tofurkey mustard sandwiches.. with lots of extra stuffing & mayo. mmMmm