Nut roast

After a late night conversation about vegetarianism and how my friend thought it would be difficult to get everything required from a vegetarian diet I've been thinking about vegetarian meals. This week I'm going to make my friend a greek inspired meal with hummus and tomatoey butter beans, to show him just how much good stuff you can get without meat.
In the process of deciding what to cook I stumbled upon nut loas recipes. As it's a Sunday I decided to go all out and make a roast. Usually I don't bother as a roast for one is a lot of work and just a bit depressing. A nut roast on the other hand appealed to me as it could easily become a sandwich filling for the week, and doesn't require lots of dishes and prep.

As usually I started off with an idea about what I wanted to put in it, searched around for recipes which met my desires, came up short so decided to put together my own version. All the quantities are pretty approximate, which is annoying for anyone trying to copy, but I make no apologies for this, adjust everything to your own taste and enjoy!

Nut roast, savoy cabbage, ketchup and mayo

Nut roast

150g mixed nuts (I used salted roast mixed nuts from sainsburys)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, sliced
1 stick celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
handful mushrooms, diced
1 tbsp flaxseed
handful grated cheese
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
splash worcester sauce
1/2 cup fine breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
Salt and pepper, to taste

Start off by blitzing the nuts in 2 batches, you want some fine and some left chunky. In a large bowl combine the nuts, breadcrumbs, cheese, flaxseed, herbs, mustard and worcester sauce. Mix and set to one side whilst you prepare the vegetables.

Heat a frying pan with a little oil. Add the onions and leeks, turn down the heat and cook for around 5 minutes until softened. Add the celery and carrots and cook for around 10 minutes. Finally add the mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes more.

Add the vegetables to the bowl. Mix everything together and then add in the egg. Mix well using your hands. It should form a loaf type consistency. If too wet add more breadcrumbs, too dry you can add a little bit of extra egg, a little oil or more sauces eg mustard.

Shape into a loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven at 160C for about an hour.

Tasty tasty loaf