Mushroom Wellington

Our mushroom wellington is the perfect recipe for special celebrations like Thanksgiving and Christmas and cozy family dinners.

Pair it with our mushroom gravy and sautéed green beans to make one of the best meat-free dinners you'll ever have! It's an excellent alternative to beef wellington.

The recipe is easy to make, with simple ingredients, and you can prepare most of it in advance.

The Wellington is filled with a tasty, meaty, and aromatic mushroom-lentil mixture and wrapped in a store-bought roll of puff pastry which you can easily find gluten-free and dairy-free if needed.

Together, mushrooms, lentils, and walnuts make the recipe fulfilling, nutritious, tasty, and earthy, with an irresistible almost-meaty texture.

Flavor base

Making a tasty flavor base to infuse the Wellington with flavor is essential.

To make it, we recommend using chopped onion, celery, carrot, leek, and garlic and gently frying them in olive oil for 5 to 10 minutes or until they start to sweat and develop incredible flavors.

This step at the beginning of the recipe will make all the difference, and your Wellington will taste like it's straight from a 5-star restaurant.

It's a simple technique used in the best cuisines in the world - it's called soffritto in Italian, sofrito in Spanish, and mirepoix in French) - and we strongly recommend it.

Herbs

Go for rosemary, sage, and thyme leaves to add beautiful earthy aromas that everyone at your table will love.

You can use dried herbs or fresh herbs. Double the quantities in our recipe box below if you use fresh ones.

Mushrooms

You can use white button mushrooms, brown mushrooms, cremini mushrooms, portobello mushrooms, and most other fresh mushrooms.

Lentils

You can use green or brown canned lentils, drained and rinsed with water.

You can also use dry lentils that you previously cooked in lightly salted boiling water for 20 to 30 minutes or until tender.

Rolled oats

Old-fashioned rolled oats help absorb the extra moisture the mushrooms release when baking in the oven.

They also add a nice chewy bite to the mushroom wellington.

Walnuts

Walnuts are often used in vegetarian ragùs and sauces because of their crunchy texture and nutty and earthy flavor.

Also, they add healthy fats that make this meal nutritionally balanced.

Tomato paste

Tomato paste adds light red color to the Wellington and boosts the loaf's umami.

Salt and pepper

We use sea salt and freshly ground black pepper for a more persistent pepper aroma.

Puff pastry

We recommend a store-bought puff pastry roll that is rectangular and between 9 and 13 ounces (250 to 350 grams).

You can choose a butter-based puff pastry sheet or, if you prefer, a vegan puff pastry sheet to make a vegan mushroom wellington.

You'll also need heavy cream, milk, or dairy-free milk to brush the top of the pastry before baking it. We do this instead of brushing egg wash with beaten egg.

Soy sauce

Soy sauce is optional; however, we did several tests with and without soy sauce, and we prefer mushroom wellington WITH soy sauce. Why? Simply put, soy sauce adds a ton of flavor. In addition, it makes the recipe richer and meatier.

You won't taste the soy sauce directly, but you'll taste that umami flavor that will make your Wellington extra special.

Tip: the mushroom filling needs to cool down completely before you use it, so we recommend making it a few hours before time or even the day before.

1. Make the flavor base

Finely chop onion, celery, carrot, and garlic, cut the leek half lengthwise, rinse the inside to remove dirt, and cut it into thin slices.

In a large frying pan, warm up the olive oil, add the chopped and sliced veggies, and fry them on medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes or until they soften and sweat.

Tip: to speed things up, you can chop onion, celery, carrot, and garlic in a food processor. If you do so, pulse a few times until the veggies are coarsely chopped. Don't chop them too finely.

We did blind tests with family and friends, and the mushroom wellington with hand-chopped veggies was the favorite because it has more texture.

Add tomato paste, rosemary, sage, and thyme leaves and stir on medium heat for 2 more minutes.

Tip: if you use fresh rosemary, sage, and fresh thyme, we recommend chopping the leaves before adding them to the pan.

2. Add the mushrooms mixture

Chop the mushrooms coarsely (stems and gills included) with a sharp knife. Then, rinse the canned lentils under running water.

Note: can you do this with a food processor? Yes; however, hand-chopped mushrooms keep their shape and texture better than food-processed mushrooms.

Add chopped mushrooms, lentils, salt, and pepper to the pan and cook on medium-high heat for 15 minutes, stirring often.

Add the soy sauce, chopped walnuts, and rolled oats, stir, and cook for 5 more minutes.

Taste and adjust for salt, pepper, and herbs. You can add more soy sauce if you like a meatier and richer flavor.

You should have a tasty mushroom filling with a coarse and compact texture at this stage. There should not be any liquid in the skillet.

Set it aside and let it cool down completely.

Tip: if you want to speed this up, spread the mushroom filling on a baking tray in an even layer.

3. Shape and cook the Wellington

We are using a standard American half-sheet baking pan (18 x 13 inches with a 1-inch border or 45 x 33 x 2.5 cm) so you get an idea of the size of the loaf.

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line baking tray with parchment paper and arrange puff pastry sheet on it.

If necessary, roll out puff pastry directly on parchment paper to create a rectangle of about 12 x 8 inches (30 x 20 cm).

Make diagonal cuts on the side of the puff pastry sheet (about 1-Inch / 2.5 cm wide).

Tip: if your puff pastry comes with parchment paper, discard the paper it comes with and use a fresh sheet of parchment paper. If you use frozen puff pastry sheets, let them thaw at room temperature beforehand.

Arrange the mushroom filling in the center of the puff pastry and press it down with your hands to compact it.

Fold in the cut strips to create a cross-hatch pattern and seal the mushroom filling.

Fold in one strip from the right, then one from the left, then one from the right, one from the left, and so on to cover the whole loaf.

Brush the top with heavy cream, milk, or plant milk.

Bake in the oven at 350°F or 180°C for 30 minutes, until the mushroom wellington is golden brown.

Let it cool down for a couple of minutes before cutting it with a serrated knife.

Serve as a main for Thanksgiving or Sunday dinner with greens and gravy:

• Mushroom gravy (mushrooms, vegetable broth, butter, soy sauce).
• Sauteed green beans or green bean salad (green beans, garlic, olive oil).
• Roasted butternut squash (butternut squash, garlic, fresh Italian herbs).
• Potato mash (potatoes, butter, milk, parmesan, nutmeg).
• Sweet potato mash (sweet potatoes, salt, butter, milk, fresh parsley).
• Roasted Brussels sprouts (Brussels sprouts, mustard, maple syrup, olive oil).
• Braised red cabbage (apple, red onion, garlic, cinnamon).

Make ahead: we recommend making the mushroom filling ahead of time (from a few hours to a day in advance), so it has time to cool down completely. Also, it will be less stressful to have the filling ready.

Refrigerator: you can store leftovers in the fridge for up to 4 days. The filling keeps very well. However, the puff pastry layer loses its flakey and crunchy texture.

Freezer: you can freeze with mushroom lentil wellington for up to 6 months before baking it. Then when you are ready to cook it, let it defrost in the fridge for at least 2 hours and bake as per instructions.

You can also freeze leftovers for up to 3 months. Let them cool down completely and transfer them to a freezer-friendly container.

Reheat: we reheat this in the microwave for a couple of minutes. You can also reheat it in a preheated oven at 350°F or 180°C for 10 minutes.

More Lentil Recipes

Get more flavor-packed legume recipes with these tasty lentil ideas:

• Lentil bolognese (green lentils, carrot, celery, dry wine, soy sauce, Italian herbs).
• Easy lentil curry (red lentils, coconut milk, turmeric, garam masala, curry, diced tomatoes).
• Lentil pasta (cherry tomatoes, lentil, ditalini pasta, garlic, rosemary, tomato paste).
• Italian lentil soup (brown lentils, carrots, leek, rosemary, leafy greens, vegetable broth).
• Red lentil soup (red lentils, crushed tomatoes, garlic, cumin, rosemary).

Get ready for festivities and family time with these easy and green Thanksgiving recipes:

• Roasted sweet potato (sweet potatoes, paprika, garlic powder, olive oil).
• Red cabbage slaw (red cabbage, green apple, carrots, walnuts).
• Cauliflower potato mash (cauliflower, potatoes, milk, parmesan, nutmeg).
• Shaved Brussels sprouts salad (Brussels sprouts, dried cranberries, walnuts, maple syrup).
• Whole roasted cauliflower (cauliflower, harissa, tahini dressing, chimichurri, almonds)
• Roasted vegetables (carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, red bell pepper, Italian herbs).
• Smashed potatoes (potatoes, olive oil, tahini sauce, cherry tomatoes, fresh parsley).

For many more dinner ideas, check out our mains category page.

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