It's that time of year again - Thanksgiving Day on Thursday 28th November this year, and Christmas Day coming up too. It's always around now that I am asked for recommendations for how to include a Vegan/Plant-Based Dish on the table - preferably something easy.
Well, I'm a 'go to' nut roast kind of person. This is a great recipe that is totally vegan-friendly, and there's another recipe on the website for a chestnut loaf that is vegetarian, and can be adapted to be vegan-friendly.
So, my suggestion as always is don't try to make life difficult. Just present a nut roast on the table - if you want to make it NOT look like a Nut Roast, wrap the ingredients in non-dariy puff pastry so it's 'en croute'!
Another tip is you can slice the loaf, and whack the slices into brioche rolls, with some tomato ketchup. Great for the following day!
Serves 6
For this recipe you will need a 900g/2lb loaf tin.
Ingredients
300g/10½oz mixed nuts, such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans or Brazil nuts
1 vegan-friendly vegetable stock cube
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing
1 onion, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced (about 100g/3½oz prepared weight)
2 carrots, coarsely grated (around 150g/5½oz prepared weight)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 tbsp cashew butter
180g/6oz cooked chestnuts, broken into small pieces
75g/2½oz dried cranberries
20g/¾oz bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 lemon, finely grated zest only
4 tbsp soya milk, such as soya
1 tsp sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Put the nuts and stock cube into a food processor and blitz on the pulse setting until chopped into small pieces, but not fully ground. If you don’t have a food processor, chop all the nuts as finely as you can.
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Lightly oil then line the base of a 900g/2lb loaf tin with baking paper.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and gently fry the onion, celery, leek and carrots for 5 minutes, or until softened, stirring regularly. Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds more.
Tip into a mixing bowl and stir in the cashew nut butter. Add the chopped nuts, chestnuts, cranberries, parsley, lemon zest, almond milk and salt. Season with lots of ground black pepper and stir until thoroughly mixed.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Press down with a spoon firmly to compact the mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for a further 20 minutes, or until the loaf is hot throughout and lightly browned.
Remove the tin carefully from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before loosening the edges of the loaf with a table knife and turning out onto a board or platter. Cut into thick slices and serve hot with vegan gravy.
Inspired by: Justine Pattison