Vegan Nut Loaf
This is absolutely perfect as a Christmas Day main course dish for vegan guests.
Method
1. 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.2. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Lightly oil then line the base of a 900g loaf tin with baking paper.
3. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and gently fry the onion, celery, leek, mushrooms, carrots and pepper for 5 minutes, or until softened, stirring regularly. Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds more.
4. Tip into a mixing bowl and stir in the cashew nut butter. Add the chopped nuts, Pickled Walnuts, herbs, lemon zest, milk, breadcrumbs and salt. Season with lots of ground black pepper and stir until thoroughly mixed.
5. 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.
6. 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.
Tip
Top with some fresh cranberries and serve with some cranberry sauce.Ingredients
• 170g Opies Pickled Walnuts (a drained jar), sliced
• 300g mixed nuts (such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans or brazil nuts)
• 1 vegan 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
• 100g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 red pepper, halved, deseeded and finely diced
• 1 carrots, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 4 tbsp cashew nut butter
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried sage
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 4 tbsp soya or almond milk
• 100g fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
