Besides all our suggestions for baking Vegan Christmas cake let’s not forget that not everybody will be tucking into Turkey on the 25th. I spent some time looking for nut roasts in the supermarket, and also on menus this time of the year. Is it me or are there fewer nut roasts on offer now? Maybe the ingredients are proving difficult with many more requests for vegan / plant-based options. So I went looking for a decent nut roast recipe to cook at home.

Nut roasts for Christmas, and throughout the year!

Nut Roast Recipe on BBC Good Food

To make my vegetarian nut loaf I used the BBC Good Food’s Nut Roast Recipe . It’s a really tasty combination of lentils, chestnut mushrooms, red pepper, carrots and mixed nuts. I can also adapt it, as you’ll see. This recipe includes dairy but there’s ways of substituting these elements to bind everything together for a vegan nut roast and to reduce the fat content, though it is high in fibre and protein. The main ingredients I use are:

1 large onion finely chopped
2 tbsps of olive oil
15g of butter
300g chestnut mushrooms finely chopped
2 large grated carrots
2 sticks of celery finely chopped
1 red pepper diced
100g red lentils
500ml of vegetable stock
3 x eggs, butter
100g grated cheese
150g of mixed nuts like cashews, brazils, walnuts
150g breadcrumbs

The recipe takes a while to put together, the lentils need some time to cook (25 minutes) and baking takes 2 steps, 20 minutes covered and 30 minutes to brown. So allow a few hours to enjoy a tasty glass of something nice and tune into Elf to get you in the seasonal mood.

Nuts About Nuts

The great thing about this recipe is also choosing the nuts – I used Tesco’s mixed unsalted nuts which includes walnuts, hazelnuts and cashews. Previously I tried toasted peanuts as they added a bit of flavour. In all honesty, the only thing I skimped on was smoked paprika as it can be quite an overpowering flavour.

The recipe suggests letting the lentil mix become quite dry but I found this time round, leaving it a little moist meant the resulting slice wasn’t too dry or concentrated. Also, using a high-sided wok I was able to make 2 nut loaves as they freeze and re-heat really well.

Though there is a sauce included in this recipe, I found making a nice veggie gravy with a red onion mix, serving with roasted cauliflower, broccoli and roast potatoes was very satisfying.

Check out the BBC Good Food Nut Roast Recipe – Merry Christmas!

Other Nut Roast Ideas

We looked at making a nut “loaf”, but here’s another idea which uses a galette base with nuts and roasted squash and caramelised onions. Watch Anna Jones on Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube as she makes this tasty nut roast.