The Ultimate Vegan Wellington Made With Mushrooms and Walnuts

|Updated Dec 16, 2022

Our Vegan Mushroom and Walnut Wellington is filled with sweet and savory flavors and features a crispy, flaky outer texture. This holiday centerpiece is stuffed with so many delicious ingredients, including walnuts, mushrooms, onion, garlic, kidney beans, smoked tofu, tomato paste, carrots, celery, soy sauce, miso, and lots of spices and herbs.

Mushroom and Walnut Wellington can be served both cold or warm, with side dishes of your choice: A big green salad, mashed potatoes, minty peas, steamed veggies, or sautéed spinach. Don’t forget to serve it with your favorite sauce like mushroom gravy, cranberry jam, or a homemade barbecue sauce.

Is Puff Pastry Vegan?

Puff pastry, the dough that turns into a croissant-like buttery and flakey layer when it's cooked, is not always vegan. Be sure to check the label when you go to your store because many puff pastry brands contain eggs and butter. However, there are store-bought puff pastry brands that contain vegetable oils or vegetable-oil-based margarine which makes it completely vegan. For vegan puff pastry brands, try any one of these:

Pepperidge Farm
Jus-Rol Pre-Rolled Dough
Schar Puff Pastry (also gluten-free)
Wewalka Puff Pastry

How to Make a Vegan Wellington More Affordable

For the most part, this recipe calls for mainly inexpensive ingredients, but you can still swap anything you don’t have on hand. If you don't have walnuts, use hazelnuts instead. If you don't have a can of kidney beans tucked away in your pantry, try chickpeas instead. Don't have any miso? The recipe can do without it and still taste amazing!

Instead of hitting the grocery store right away, check on your leftovers and see if any of the ingredients can be reused in this dish. Take any wilted vegetables like herbs, mushrooms, and carrots, and use them up!

There's also a way to speed up this recipe. If you love the look of this Vegan Mushroom and Walnut Wellington but want it to be ready in half the time, feel free to swap the filling to anything you like or use a storebought filling. Your pastry will look the same but it will have a different taste. You can even use the stuffing from last night's meal in this vegan puff pastry. For another example, use store-bought vegan ground meat or lentils for a super quick and easy cheat version.

What is Vegan Wellington Made of?

It's likely you already have many of the ingredients to make this vegan wellington stored away in your pantry or leftover from yesterday's salad. You'll need to dig through your spice cabinet for this one! The flavor in this vegan wellington comes from the array and variety of spices, fresh herbs, and sauces, as well as your fresh chopped vegetables. To get started, lay out all your ingredients on your countertop:

Onions
Cloves of garlic
Celery
Carrot
Mushrooms
Vegetable oil
Smoked tofu
Tomato paste
Soy sauce
Dark miso
Balsamic vinegar
Maple syrup
Vegan Worcestershire sauce
Liquid smoke
Fresh herbs (such as sage, thyme, basil, etc)
Smoked paprika
Marjoram
Cumin
Ground coriander
Curry powder
Chili powder
Ground nutmeg
Kidney beans, rinsed and drained
Walnuts, toasted
Nutritional yeast
Bread crumbs or oat flour
Puff pastry
Plant milk
Salt
Pepper

What You'll Need to Make Vegan Wellington

There are three pieces of kitchen equipment you must have to make this vegan wellington. You'll start by adding dry ingredients, then wet ingredients to a mixing bowl. You will also need a food processor to blend the walnuts and filling. You will also need a baking tray to cook the wellington.

How to Make Oil-Free Vegan Wellington

Looking for a healthy vegan wellington? You can make this recipe oil-free by sauteing the onions and mushrooms without oil and opting for a vegetable broth instead. Instead of using puff pastry, try using oil-free pizza dough.

How to Make Healthy Vegan Wellington

If you want the healthiest way to make vegan wellington, try swapping the puff pastry for whole wheat or gluten-free pizza dough. Instead of regular soy sauce or vegan Worechsire sauce, choose the low-sodium option at your grocery store. To fully enjoy the vegan wellington with healthy sides, serve your dish with a side of fresh greens, a big salad, or steamed vegetables instead of mashed potatoes and stuffing.

The Perfect Christmas Main Dish

Vegan Walnut and Mushroom Wellington make for a beautiful centerpiece to enjoy at Christmas dinner or brunch. If you want to really impress your guest, make your filling even more flavorful by choosing a combination of different mushrooms, using fresh herbs and chili, and using vegan butter instead of oil.

You can also level up your garnish game by adding extras such as truffle, red wine, saffron, vegan bacon, and melty vegan cheese to your filling. Let's not forget about the decoration of your vegan wellington. Cut out little stars or leaves out of puff pastry, or braid some dough on top. Add fresh herbs or cranberries, or sprinkle your log with seeds. Lastly, serve your mushroom and walnut wellington with a delicious homemade sauce and a variety of side dishes.

Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 40 minutes

Vegan Mushroom and Walnut Wellington

Makes 1 wellington (serves 6-8)

Ingredients

2 onions, roughly chopped (1 cup chopped)
5 cloves of garlic
1 stalk of celery, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
14 oz / 400 g mushrooms, roughly chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
7 oz / 200 g smoked tofu, shredded or crumbled
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dark miso
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp liquid smoke
3 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (such as sage, thyme, basil, etc)
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup / 120 g walnuts, toasted
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp bread crumbs or oat flour
10 oz / 300 g puff pastry, thawed
unsweetened plant milk for brushing
salt, pepper

Instructions

Add onion, garlic, celery, carrot, and mushrooms to a food processor, and process until finely shredded. Alternatively, you can also chop everything with a knife, however food processor makes this step a lot easier and quicker.
Heat up oil in a large skillet, then add shredded veggies. Sauté, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until most of the liquid evaporates. Add tofu, and seasonings from tomato paste up until ground nutmeg is on the ingredient list. Cook on for another 5 minutes.
Add drained kidney beans to a large bowl, and mash with a fork until mostly smooth with a few chunks left.
Place walnuts in the food processor and pulse a few times until chopped. Add walnuts to beans together with the cooked mix, nutritional yeast, bread crumbs, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well, taste, and adjust seasoning if needed. Set aside until cool enough to handle.
Preheat oven to 400 F / 200 C.
If your puff pastry is not pre-rolled, roll it out into a large rectangle, about 25 x 40 cm. Transfer Wellington mix onto the pastry, and shape into a log in the middle.
Cut the pastry into strands slightly diagonally along the log (see pictures). Fold the ends over the log, then wrap/braid the log with the pastry strips, alternating sides, until the log is fully covered. You can use any leftover pastry to cover larger gaps or to cut out cute shapes for decorating.
Brush Wellington with plant milk, then bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown.