A Nut Roast is one of the go-to vegetarian main course dishes. For our recent pop-up vegan dining event (Check out our Green and Vegan FB page), we decided to do a vegan version.
Over there years we have made several nut roasts but have never found a really great recipe. I came across this vegetarian Lentil and Nut Roast – in a huge book aptly titled: The Complete Encyclopedia of Vegetables and Vegetarian Cooking (by Roz Denny and Christine Ingram).
Only a couple of changes needed to veganize it – replaced the butter with coconut oil, and the eggs with ground flaxseeds.
And then, for presentation purposes we made individual round mini roasts. This also helped to make sure they were cooked through.
My ingredients:
2/3 C red lentils
1 C hazelnuts
1 C walnuts
2 carrots
2 celery sticks
1 large onion
125 g brown mushrooms
2 T coconut oil
2 t mild curry powder
2 T tomato sauce
2 T Worcestershire sauce (vegan one)
3 T ground flaxseeds
2 t salt
4 T fresh parsley, chopped
a little water
What to do:
Preparation
1. The lentils – the original recipe said just soak them for an hour. The first time I made this recipe the lentils were undercooked and hard.
So now I soak the lentils for a few hours, and then cook for a short while till they start to split. Then drain and set aside.
2. Grind the nuts in a food processor till they are fine, but not till it is a flour. Set aside.
3. Coarsely chop the carrots, celery, onions and mushrooms and process till quite fine, but again not into a paste. You want to retain some texture.
4. Heat the coconut oil in a pan and gently fry the vegetables for about 5 mins. Add in the curry powder and cook for another few minutes. Set aside to cool.
5. In a large bowl, mix in the lentils, nuts, vegetables and other ingredients. Be generous with the tomato sauce and worcestershire sauce. Use just enough water to make the mixture workable and for the flaxseed to soak up, but dont make it too wet.
Baking
6. To bake – either grease and line a loaf tin, press the mixture into it and bake at about 180 Deg C for an hour – depending on your oven.
Or place a sheet of baking parchment on a tray, oil it, and press your mixture into about 8 round individual molds. Bake at about 180 deg C. After about 20 mins, take the tray out the oven, run a knife around the egdes of the mini roasts and lift off the molds. Return to oven and cintinue baking till they are done.
To serve up:
Well of course you can serve them up as you please – traditionally with roast potatoes, veggies of your choice and gravy.
For our vegan pop-up dinner, we served with baby boiled potatoes and stuffed peppers and either a vegan gravy or homemade tomato sauce, with a sprinkling of fresh parsley. Plus a green salad on the table.
Bon apetit!
