Homemade Tofurkey

This year for Thanksgiving I made a few dishes to include at our family dinner that were vegan and gluten free, which included:

Homemade Tofurkey
Quinoa Sage Stuffing
Sage Gravy
Walnut Brussels Sprouts
Sweet Potato Casserole
Chocolate Pie with Graham Cracker Crust

Over the next few posts, I will include the recipe for each of these dishes.  Let's start with the main dish, my Homemade Tofurkey.  Since packaged Tofurkey is not gluten free, I had to find something else to replace the main part of my Thanksgiving meal and I came across a homemade tofurkey and was surprised at how easy the recipe was to make.  I highly recommend giving this a try.  It was easy to make and tasted great!

This recipe was adapted from here:

Ingredients:

• 2 16oz packages of Extra Firm Tofu
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 1/2 tsp agar flakes
• Stuffing* 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease a large loaf pan with non-stick spray.
2. Drain tofu and pat dry as much as possible. (You can also prep the tofu ahead of time and let it air dry for an hour or so before patting dry the rest of the moisture.)  Crumble the tofu into small pieces.
3. Place the tofu and the rest of the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
4. Add additional seasonings or more vegetable broth to your desired taste and blend until combined.
5. Measure out a heaping cup of tofu mixture and set aside. 
6. With the remaining tofu mixture, spread a layer on the bottom and all sides of the loaf pan. 
7. Firmly, but gently press your stuffing into the pan.
8. Cover the stuffing with the remaining tofu mixture and seal the edges.  (I ran a spatula along the edges to help smooth it out and seal it together.)
9. Loosely cover the pan with aluminium foil so the foil is not touching the tofu but is "tented" over the top and bake for 50 minutes.
10. Remove the foil and cook an additional 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.
11. Allow to cool before unmolding. (Since I prepared this a day in advance, once mine cooled I refrigerated it overnight then unmolded it the next day and it came out easily.  I then sliced a serving and reheated it in the microwave.)
12. Slice and serve with sauce or gravy. ( I used Sage Gravy.)

*Any kind of stuffing will work to fill your tofurkey.  I used  Quinoa Sage Stuffing.  It worked out really well because I used most to fill the tofurkey but had some leftover to be eaten as a side dish.

As I made this I was really nervous because this was my first time making this dish and if it didn't come out right I did not have a backup Thanksgiving meal main dish.  However, I was very surprised at how well it came out.  Not only did it unmold really nicely, but when I sliced it and took a serving the stuffing stayed nicely packed in the center of the tofu.  I wonder if it helped stay together so nicely since my tofurkey was cold when I unmolded it, sliced it, and grabbed a serving?  

Here's how the tofurkey looked just after filling it 

with the stuffing before adding the tofu mixture on top.

My tofurkey before adding Sage Gravy on top!

Since this tofurkey can be made with any stuffing, for the tofu mixture only, the entire recipe yields approximately 780 calories and 72g protein.

For the tofurkey with about 4 cups of the Quinoa Sage Stuffing:

Based on 8 slices, each slice is approximately 185 calories and 11g protein.