Southwestern Tofurky Roast

I had apprehensions when I unwrapped my first Tofurky before last Christmas. Expecting something vaguely meat-like, I was confronted with a plastic wrapped softball. I had tried the Tofurky sliced 'smoked turkey' on sandwiches and thought it was pretty good. But a beige softball? Not a good start.

On the package there were two suggested ways to baste to Tofurky while baking it. The orange one sounded like a bad idea for a Christmas turkey, so I tried the other. Unfortunately, althoguh the 'meat' and stuffing was delicious, the basting liquid was salty and used far too much oil. The basting overpowered the quality of the roast itself.

When I had a chance to get another Tofurky at a discount, I jumped at it and now wish I had bought a lot more of them. The package says it has 5 servings, but I was able to eat one 'roast' for days.

In an attempt to add a basting liquid to the roast that was as good as the 'meat', I decided to replace most of the oil with hidden liquid flavor. I roasted some poblano chiles long enough to remove the skin and seeds. I scored the tofurky very lightly and rubbed it with a teaspoon or two of oil. Then I rubbed about a tablespoon of chipotle powder on it. The Tofurky was then wrapped in the poblano chiles and aluminum foil and then baked.

The result was a super tender, very tasty, very juicy Tofurky roast that even offered up some pan juices. Sorry, Tofurky package recipe-writer-people. I win this one big time.


Southwestern Tofurky Roast

1 Tofurky, defrosted as per manufacturers directions
3 large poblano chiles
2 tsp olive oil
1 Tbs chipotle powder

Note: if you want even less heat than a poblano, you could use 6 or so Anaheim (Hatch) chiles instead, or even regular bell peppers as long as you roast and peel them

Preheat oven to 350F

Using a gas burner or your broiler, blister the skin on the poblanos, and set them aside, covered, for 15 minutes.

Peel the poblanos and remove the stem and seeds.

With a sharp knife, carefully remove the roast from its package.

Carefully and very lightly score the roast on all sides.

Rub olive oil over roast

Rub chipotle powder over roast.

Lay out a large sheet of aluminum foil and lay one poblano in the center. Add the roast on the poblano. Drape the other two poblanos over the sides and wrap up firmly in the aluminum foil.

Wrap the entire ball in another layer of aluminum foil and put in a shallow oven proof dish.

Bake for 90 minutes.

When serving, open the foil and remove the poblanos to the side. Remove roast and slice. Serve slices over pieces of the roasted poblanos. There will be several tablespoons of 'pan drippings' in the bottom of the foil, so spoon that over the slices.