Vegan Nut Roast

Nut roast is not the most photogenic of foods but it is a really tasty addition to a traditional roast dinner. I have made many variations on the nut roast theme but the one below is a recipe that other people have said is really tasty and a long way from the very dry versions of nut roast that are sometimes found. There is plenty of scope for experiment with this basic recipe, try different combination of nuts, different herbs (or spices) and add in different soft vegetables if you like – I have added red pepper in the past which gives a little touch of colour to the brownness of the roast. The addition of vegetables, and in particularly, courgette makes the roast moist and not too heavy.

Ingredients

• 200g of nuts ( any combination will do, e.g.walnuts, almonds and cashews)
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• Approx 3 medium size mushrooms sliced and chopped
• Half a courgette
• 1 tablespoon of chickpea flour (gram flour) or gf flour (vegetarians could use an egg instead)
• 1 dessertspoon of miso
• I tablespoon of sage
• Olive oil or vegan butter

Method

1. Put the nuts in a grinder and grind them as fine as possible. I sometimes find that my grinder is a little uneven and leaves a few chunks, I quite like the variety of texture that gives but you may not.
2. Saute the onion and mushroom to soften them
3. Put the nuts into a mixing bowl
4. Grate in the courgette
5. Add the onion and mushrooms
6. Add the miso and sage,
7. Add the chickpea flour – this acts as an egg replacement to bind the loaf, other possible options are flaxseed flour or gluten-free flour though I have not tried them
8. Mix everything together well, if the mixture is very stiff then you may need to add a little water, if it seems a bit sloppy then add some more chickpea flour.
9. Grease and line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper (this makes getting the loaf out so much easier)
10. Pat the mixture into the tin well
11. Bake for approximately 30 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius
12. Turn out onto a plate to serve

I often serve this with a gravy that I make using a vegetable stock cube and a dessertspoon of miso with a little boiling water. Cook in a saucepan for about 5 minutes stirring till the lumps of stock cube dissolve.

At a glance conversion

To help out those still working in pounds, ounces or cups