Vegan nut roast

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Vegan nut roast

this is all that was left...

I like nut roast and I especially like it with texture and some nuts that crunch. 

I made a vegan version this year, which was also gluten free, so no-one had any excuse for not eating it. In fact a lot of family had it alongside roast beef. We're a broad church - I'm not a vegetarian

Vegan nut roast

Equipment

large mixing bowl

knife and board

saucepan

2lb bread tin

Set oven to 180 degrees

INGREDIENTS 

Most of a butternut squash (I used the seeded end)

1 carrot

2 medium onions

1 heaped cup of mixed nuts (150g)

2 small cloves garlic

Salt and pepper

1/2 tsp sage

1/2 tsp mixed herbs

1 cup cooked lentils

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 cup whole chestnuts chopped

2 eggs/egg replacement mix

METHOD 

Scoop out the seeds if necessary, peel and dice the squash, peel the carrots and finely dice onion

Fry all the veg gently in large pan, in one spoonful of olive oil until translucent - I put them on a low heat, put a lid on and let them stew

While veg are frying, chop nuts coarsely make sure you leave some whole

In a large bowl stir together chopped herbs, cooked lentils and breadcrumbs along with chopped chestnuts, chopped nuts and stir to mix

add your egg/egg replacement mix and stir until well combined

put into lined bread tin and pat down to compress

bake for 45 minutes uncovered -  the top will be golden brown

let your nut roast sit for a moment, turn out carefully, don’t tap it, and peel off the lining paper, use a very sharp knife to cut into slices

Serve with onion gravy or other veggie gravy

Onion gravy

ingredients

Two large onions, sliced

blob of butter or other fat

low salt veggie stock

pepper and salt to taste

equipment

saucepan

stick blender

wooden spoon

METHOD

fry onions over low heat until rich golden brown, stirring as you go

add vegetable stock

blend to a very smooth liquid, like single cream 

tip: if it isn't as dark as you want add soy sauce or marmite, checking salt level, or use very strong breakfast tea to make the veggie stock

serve with nut roast 

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Vegan Mushroom Wellington

brush the pastry with plant milk
to make it golden brown

Preparing food for a vegan treat, to be eaten while others tuck into a roast is worth doing. Why should anyone lose out on an occasion meal. The aim, while preparing the vegan mushroom pie (Wellington) is for everyone to envy the person eating it.

What is needed then?

• a dish that looks great
• flavour packed into every mouthful
• texture and moisture - to keep the eater's attention
• nutritional value

Deep flavour 

- use a mirepoix or soffrito, celery, carrot and onion sweated gently in olive oil. Mix this with chick peas, a spoonful of nut butter or tahini and crush or blend it all together, adding garlic if you like.

- a rich stock, home made vegetable bouillon or ready made with added porcini mushrooms, peppercorns, cloves, bayleaf and other herbs all simmered gently for 30 minutes

This isn't a quick dish to prepare, it's a proper main to match any other Sunday Roast type main. I served this alongside roast lamb, and those eating the lamb still eyed up the veg wellington. You may want to add gravy to the list, although if you serve it with a dressed salad you won't need it.

Mushroom Wellington - makes two

Ingredients

• Leaf spinach - one bunch
• Mirepoix - 1 stick celery, 1 carrot, half onion
• large onion
• mushrooms (1 punnet)
• half cup chick peas
• parsley chopped fine
• chopped mixed nuts (I use sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds)
• half dessert apple peeled and finely diced
• porcini mushrooms 
• puff pastry block or ready rolled
• 1tsp veg bouillon or veg stock cube (read label to ensure they are vegan)
• 1 tbsp nut butter (I like almond butter as it adds richness but not flavour)
• nut or other plant milk
• mixed herbs
• oil

Method

• Take half the onion for the mirepoix mixture (see below)
• Prepare the mirepoix, chopping celery, peeled carrot and onion very fine, put into pan over low heat with a spoonful of oil, cook gently until tender (this is sweating) check the heat and stir, you don't want the mixture to brown.... once it's cooked add finely diced peeled dessert apple and cook until soft, stir through the finely chopped parsley, season and then set to one side COMPONENT: MIREPOIX MIXTURE
• Clean mushrooms by tapping out soil and removing stems, set caps to one side COMPONENT: MUSHROOM CAPS
• prepare half cup of stock adding spoonful of porcini mushroom and stems from the other mushrooms - boiling all together to deepen the flavour. If you don't have any suitable stock the mushrooms will good favour in a cup full of water, add herbs to taste. Once the stock is flavourful turn it off. You can discard the mushrooms or keep them to add to the chickpea mixture BUT if you do you'll need to puree them very well
• slice remaining half onion and fry gently in small amount of oil until brown, add herbs and chickpeas and stock and reduce until only small amount of liquid remain, then mash or puree chick pea mixture adding in spoonful of nut butter, pepper and salt to taste stir through the mixed nuts and set to one side COMPONENT: CHICK PEA PUREE
• wash the leaf spinach and dry COMPONENT: SPINACH
• you're nearly ready to put the mushroom wellington together 

you can prepare up to this point in advance

these are all the ingredients except the nut butter

Putting together the mushroom wellington - mounding the ingredients

whole nuts add crunch and the apple adds
pops of sweetness

Set the oven to 180 degrees to warm up

Line a large baking sheet with greaseproof paper

• roll out the pastry if needed and cut  four squares, two about 10x10cm (4 inces) two about 14x14cm (over an inch larger than the other) and us the smaller squares as the base COMPONENT: PASTRY SQUARES
• Line up the components: pastry base, mushroom caps, chick pea puree mixture, mirepoix mixture, spinach leaves
• set out two smaller squares spacing them a couple of inches apart
• moisten the edges of the smaller pastry square with nut milk using your finger or a pasty brush
• cover pastry base with spinach leaves, keeping the edges clear
• spread a spoonful of mirepoix mixture onto spinach leaves, spreading it like butter in a sandwich
• spoon chick pea puree mixture on top of mirepoix mixture and spread thickly
• stack sliced mushroom caps onto mixture, leaving a gap at the sides so the mushrooms sit inside the chick pea puree mixture
• spread another spoonful of chick pea puree over the mushroom slices
• spread mirepoix mixture over the chick pea puree
• cover with spinach leaves
• drape larger pastry square over the mounded ingredients and seal it to the base square using a fork
• put some steam holes into the top so that the steam can escape during cooking
• repeat with second mushroom wellington



pierce pastry with fork to let
steam out while cooking

• brush both wellingtons with nut milk

whole mushroom caps for the centre
chopped mushroom stems and onions for added richness

cook for around 40 minutes until piping hot and golden brown

serve with veg gravy, and steamed green veg or salad

crimp the edges with a fork

flapjacks

Flapjacks are full of oats and oats are full of great things. What else are oats good for? Porridge. Konjee. Haggis. All these can provide you with oats and oats are brilliant for keeping you full, and counteracting cholesterol.

Oh, oatcakes, you can make oatcakes. Personally, I'd rather eat kitchen towels, a more convenient way to remove moisture from my mouth. I suppose you could use oats to make textured pictures as part of a collage, if you run out of sand and pasta, or indeed together with sand and pasta - although I suspect you would need gallons of glue.

You can use oats as a coating too, instead of breadcrumbs.

Aren't they used as a facial scrub sometimes (with water)?

I've no idea why they get horses/ponies etc frisky, but apparently they do. I've tried it and it didn't work for me. But don't let that stop you.

Anyway, for reasons that would take too long to explain, I've got an awful lot of oats in the cupboard. And it isn't because I've been trying to pep up my love life, or that my pony has died. Now, I hate porridge but my family doesn't, sadly the oats I have in plenty are the jumbo variety, and I'm told they don't make good porridge or rather when used in porridge the slime factor isn't uniform enough or something. I'm not eating it, can't say. So what to do? Flapjacks is the only answer.

I use a roasting tin, lined with baking parchment. It measures 8x12" (20x30cm). So, adjust the quantities according to the size of your tin. Or use a tin the same size as mine.

What is baking parchment? It's greaseproof paper's baby brother, probably the result of space technology, like teflon. It is non-stick. If you haven't got any, grease the tin very well, or use the old stalwart, greaseproof paper, which you should also grease. What's the point of that? It makes the tin easier to clean, and helps you get the flapjacks out of the tin more easily as well.

tip:

1. scrunching up the paper makes it sit easier in the pan
2. using enough paper to reach the edge of the tray makes it easier to get everything out 
3. you can use up the ends of packets of mueslie as part of your flapjacks

Flapjack recipe

Ingredients
200g butter or margarine
100g soft brown sugar
200g golden syrup
500g oats

Set your oven to Gas Mark 5/375/190

Method
Line your baking tin with baking parchment.

• On a low hear, gently melt the butter/marg in a saucepan. Once it has melted. Add the sugar and golden syrup, keeping the heat low, stirring all the time.
• If you let it bubble it may start to crystallise, and not mix completely with the oats.
• Once everything in the pan is melted and mixed up nicely stir in the oats, until the liquid coats the oats evenly. Stir the oat mixture up well, so that the oats soak up the liquid well.
• Put the sticky oat mixture into the tin, spreading it evenly to the edges and tamping it down, to make it an even depth. 
• Cook for 20-30 minutes, until the surface of the mixture is slightly golden. 
• Take out of the over and allow to cool. 
• When flapjacks are tepid, cut into squares, using a sharp knife. If you cut from the outside edge into the middle, it'll be a cleaner cut.

Don't eat too much at once, becuase you might get tummy ache. Or, live dangerously, and eat it all at once. Or as much as you like. It's your life, your stomach. They're pretty good flapjacks.

If you fancy it you can add nuts and/or dried fruit. Up to 150g in weight should do it.

cantucchini - delicious nutty biscotti that may compromise your dental health

So I’m getting the cantucchini recipe straight now. The first batch were definitely the dentist’s friend, requiring serious dunking, in tea coffee or alcohol to avoid that worrying bite and crunch after which you wondered if that was a nut in your mouth or a fragment of something, that until very recently, had formed part of your dental infrastructure.

The dough should be sticky but not wet. Eggs vary in size, as does opinion about what large means (thank you, Marks and Spencer). If your dough is not sticking together add a little water, drop by drop. Or you could add some alcohol, it will give it a twist, something without too strong a flavour. Not milk, since this is a fat free recipe, let’s not spoil it.

The flavour is light, and the flavour of the nuts is not swamped by the vanilla or the cinnamon. Don’t forget the salt, it makes a big difference, and I am going to buy some fresh baking powder, because I don’t think my first bake rises quite enough. Baking powder does go off.

It’s worth waiting a while before cutting the first bake of the loaf into slices. I have found a very sharp serrated knife works best. I’m also thinking of drying out the almonds a little before starting on this recipe. I skin the almonds by soaking them in boiling water, and that makes them a teeny bit soggy.

All in all, despite this being a two step recipe, it is worth making the effort. The biscotti, apart from being the only thing in my cupboard with that name that is actually cooked twice, keep for ages, if you can hide them from the greedy. They are not too sweet either.

I have mixed nuts and favour some brazil nuts and some hazelnuts as an alternative. I don’t want any fruit in there myself, but some people include raisins or apricots (chopped up).

RECIPE

Ingredients:

325g (12oz) plain flour

300g (11oz) caster sugar

1½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. salt

325g (12oz) whole blanched almonds

3 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Method:

Set your oven to Gas Mark 4 (180°C/350°F).

Prepare two baking sheets with baking parchment.

Roughly crush about a third of the almonds (I sometimes use 1/3 almond flour)

Mix the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and almonds.

Whisk the eggs and vanilla together and stir them into the dry ingredients, working it into a stiff dough (I use a fork). If it’s not all sticking together add a few drops of water.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and divide into two.

Roll each half into a sausage and divide again into two, so you have four pieces. I do this because it fits on my baking tray, and makes slightly smaller biscotti.

Put the sausage shaped dough on the lined trays and flatten a little – they will spread a bit, so keep them well spaced.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the logs are well risen and have almost doubled in size.

Leave the oven on.

Cut into slices about 1cm thick. Some people say they should be smaller, but I can’t cut them that small. Don’t worry about leaving space between the slices.

Put the sliced dough back and cook for around 20 minutes more, until they are lightly toasted. Let them cool before storing (or eating).

Makes lots.

 

 

Veg and nut wellington

I'm still developing this one. I've made it twice so far, once with puff pastry and once with shortcrust. The heart of the dish is made with a recipe from Cranks for nut roast. This mixture is balanced be a moist layer of mashed veg, which is surrounded by a single leaf layer of cabbage or spinach, followed by pastry. The whole is then baked in a hot oven, to be eaten with  a tangy green salad.

The first effort (shortcrust) was very good. The mashed veg was swede and butternut squash, with nutmeg, sitting on spinach.

The second effort is in the freezer. Puff pastry, gently fried onion with steamed sweet potato and some fried nutmeg, with a divider of savoy cabbage.

The main thing is that the puff and short crust pastry are both shop bought and are vegan, hurray.

I think this one is a winner. I've eaten it twice, both with cabbage. It was nothing but yum. And packed with protein. In the tradition of cooks everywhere I do want to brag, and in order to disguise that I'll say, if I say so myself, this is very good.

chocolate fridge cake

I made some of this over Christmas, in case we got peckish. Hahahahhahahahaha! It was delicious, if I say so myself. And I used salted butter, which I like. I'm not a purist about chocolate though. Oh and I used non wheat biscuits, made with almond flour, and I mixed up the nuts, so my version had almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts.

I made it chunky, which meant it was hard to cut, so remember a small and flat version will facilitate the eating. Not that you'll need any help.

I like it if the two chocolates aren't so mixed up. If you're feeling lazy, just use a few more biscuits and make the milk chocolate one with nuts already in it.

RECIPE

Ingredients

250g digestive biscuits

150g milk chocolate

150g dark chocolate

100g butter

big spoonful of golden syrup (or honey – makes it more sticky)

100g walnuts

50g hazelnuts

Method

o    line an 20cm/8" cake tin or 2 margarine containers with greaseproof paper

o    break up digestive biscuits - I like to smash them in a plastic bag, to contain the crumbs

o    roughly chop the nuts

o    put broken biscuits and chopped nuts into the lined tin

o    melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, with the butter and syrup

o    stir to combine, allow to cool a bit  and pour over the biscuit mixture

o    press in to make sure all the gaps are filled

o    leave to cool

Eat

Goes well with a stiff black coffee.

Remember not to pour hot mixture into a plastic container - you'll end up throwing it away, or eating plastic.

If you don't have greaseproof paper butter the tin or container liberally, refrigerate and when completely set it should pop out like an enormous chocolate ice cube, without the ice.