Karen Wright:A flavourful and festive Vegan Wellington

However, we have vegans and vegetarians joining us, so of course I need to conjure something up equally special for them.

I have settled on a Vegan Wellington. It is like an overgrown veggie sausage roll with a few twiddly bits to jazz it up.

I generally make rough puff pastry from scratch. It’s not as time consuming as full puff pastry and I find it very satisfying seeing it rise in the oven. Puff pastry in the shops is great too and is generally vegan. I keep a roll in the freezer for emergencies!

The filling I am using has lots of seasonal festive flavours. You can put anything you like into the mix, but this is what I did: I start with roasting butternut squash and sweet potatoes as these are brilliant for texture and vibrant colour.

While they cook I make a duxelle by softening chopped onions and mushrooms in a frying pan, cooking slowly to draw out the sweetness in the onion’s and the rich umami from the mushroom. I add a bit of marmite and mustard too, with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl I tip in the butternut squash, sweet potato and onion and mushroom mixture. Then I add more Christmas flavours with sage, rosemary, thyme and nutmeg.

Chestnuts from a vacuum pouch and lentils go in next, with a squeeze of orange juice and fresh orange zest. Everything in the bowl gets mixed together...add more seasoning now if you wish.

Take your sheet of pastry and cut along it horizontally a third of the way up, this will be the base, and the bigger section is the top.

Pile your filling along the base but leave a margin about a cm all around, this is where the top will stick down.

I then take some cranberry sauce and spread a generous layer over the top of the filling.

Brush the margin with soya milk then lay the other pastry over the top and seal it at the base by crimping the top and bottom pastry together. Brush all over with soya milk.

Bake in a hot oven at 200c for about 25 minutes until puffed up and golden. Serve with the usual vegetables and a veggie gravy! Delicious!

See you all next week - Christmas Eve!