For too long, a hearty plant-based roast for the holidays has been… a little bit gross, available in a grocer’s freezer or fridge with ’70s-style packaging. Thankfully, the same local company that made the vegan hot dog delicious, Yeah Dawg, has come to the rescue with a gluten-free, soy-free version. The roast is made of their Chixn and Shroom Sausage dough, whose ingredients are sunflower seeds, chickpeas, oyster and shiitake mushrooms, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots; they’re then stuffed with wild rice, shiitake mushrooms, Gala apples, and gluten-free stuffing for a full-on holiday flavor explosion.
Continuing to work with full vegetables, legumes, and seeds in a vegan world dominated by gluten, soy, and tech meat provides a challenge for Yeah Dawg’s owner Marino Benedetto, but that’s also where they find their inspiration.
“I find my creativity and passion is activated by using only actual vegetables to remake comfort food classics,” they told me over email. “Texture is always challenging when not using seitan or fillers, but that challenge is what I thrive on. We are happy to stay true to our mission of creating plant-based comfort food out of vegetables and whole foods with plenty of realness, heart and soul. You can definitely feel the difference but most of all you can really taste the difference. You can’t mass produce that home-made real taste! The lab and big company vegan meats definitely hog up the corporate outlets and major chains shelf space. It’s given us a nice opportunity to be thinking more locally and revisit the incredible value that has, allowing more chance to collaborate and work with small, like-minded businesses—to work more with my community and with the people who get it and want real food.”
The roasts will be available for shipping on Yeah Dawg’s website, and they’ll also be doing pickup at their kitchen and select stores the week of Thanksgiving. To find out where, follow along on their Instagram. “The roast serves 2 to 3 people for $30 or we will have a double roast pack that serves 4 to 6 for $55,” says Benedetto. “We will also be making these throughout December for the holiday season. We are hosting our Queering Capitalism Market on December 15 at 3 Dollar Bill and will have them available there for pickup as well.”
