Ingredients

1 package water-packed tofu, frozen, thawed, then frozen again, then thawed again
1/2 cup dried mushrooms (any type)
1 vegan beef bullion cube (we like Edward & Sons Not Beef cubes)
1 Tablespoon liquid aminos (can sub tamari or even soy sauce)
4 Tablespoons tapioca starch
3 Tablespoons psyllium powder
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt (omit if using soy sauce)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°.

Press the tofu very well, for at least 15 minutes (a half hour is better) until you have squished out as much of the moisture as you can. If you’ve never worked with twice-frozen, twice-thawed tofu before you will be amazed by two things: 1. How much water you get out of it, and 2. How completely different the texture is once it goes through this process. (That’s what makes the “I can’t believe it’s not chicken” so incredible.)

Put the tofu along with all of the dry ingredients in the bowl of your food processor, fitted with the ‘S’ blade. Pulse until it looks like crumbles, and then turn on fully. While the mixture is processing drizzle in the liquid aminos. The mixture should start to change texture. Now slowly drizzle in some room temperature water until the mixture starts to come together in a single mass. At this point stop drizzling in the water and watch what the mixture does; it should become a single ball of dough that travels around the bowl of the food processor. If it doesn’t become a ball of dough, add in a tiny bit more water, tiny bit at a time, until it does. Once you have a ball of dough traveling around your food processor bowl, turn the food processor off.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper (optional, but helps with any possible mess) and then line it with a length of aluminum foil. Take the ball of dough and place it in the middle of the foil. Pat the dough into a mound the approximate length and width of the original block of tofu.

Bring the ends of the foil up and over your mound of dough and crimp them together to make a loose shroud over your dough. Now crimp the ends so that the package is air-tight.

Leaving it on the baking sheet, put it in the oven and bake for 1/2 hour. Flip the package over, and bake for another half hour. Remove from the oven, flip it over again (so that the seam side is up) and let cool on a rack, still in the foil. Once it is completely cool you can open the foil to check on it before re-wrapping it and putting it in the fridge (yes, yes, you can also cut a slice off to taste it, we know you want to but, again, it is much better after it is chilled).

After your vegan roast beef is thoroughly chilled slice it and enjoy your vegan roast beef sandwich! Or, if you find the texture to your liking when heated, use it as the basis for a vegan roast beef dinner!