Nutroast - Gimme The Recipe - You came for the food now stay for the romance! (2024)

Christmas holidays are over and there’s a glut of nuts and seeds in my cupboards, there’s also a glut of chocolate but that doesn’t pose a problem in any shape or form. The nuts and seeds do need to be used up however before they go rancid as biting into a bitter forgotten nut is not very pleasant. I had stocked up in order to make Florentines which are my favourite Christmas biscuit. The plan was to make them as gifts and some for my own consumption naturally but Christmas came and then New Years passed me by and still no sign of Florentines! There’s always next year.
I’ve just finished boxing up the Christmas decorations and can understand why some people never put them away. It is a closing of ceremonies tinged with a sadness that Christmas is over and is it just me that wonders how many more times will I get to open up these treasure chests? Today I wondered would my children eventually argue over who would inherit these goodies! I love my decorations and each year I add a little more to the collection. I’ve a penchant for gold and reds for the tree and then silver and royal blue in another room and in what I call ‘my’ room I reserve for purples, mauves and greys. What vanity, what frivolity, but at the end of each year these are simply toys that I look forward to reopening.
The nutroast has put paid to some of my mixed nuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds and I threw in some sesame seeds for good measure. Use any combination of whatever is lurking in your cupboards and if you like your veggies and nuts then you will love this gem.

The recipe is based on one from BBC Good Food and the next time I make it I think I will try to make it a little drier, as in it was almost too moist to cut into slices and as leftovers would be great in lunchboxes a less wet mix would suit that purpose.

Your food processor will be your friend here as lots of chopping and grating is required and the food processor will turn what could be laborious into a cinch.
Nut roast.
You will need:
1 Medium Onion
3 cloves garlic
Rapeseed or olive oil
1 Red Pepper
1 Large Carrot
300g mushrooms
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 400g tin green lentils
1 400g tin plum tomatoes
100g breadcrumbs
100g grated cheddar
200g total nuts &seeds (I used 100g mixed nuts & combo pumkin, sunflower, sesame)
2 eggs
Method:
Pre-heat fan oven to 180C
Prepare a loaf tin by greasing the sides with some butter and lining the base and ends with a long strip of baking paper so that the ends come over the end of the tin (see picture).
Chop the onion and garlic together in the food processor (FP)
Heat 1 tbsp oil in large pan and soften onion and garlic for 5 minutes.
Chop the red pepper in the FP and add to pan.
Chop the mushrooms in FP and add to pan.
Grate the carrot in FP and add to pan.
Add paprika and oregano and mix well.
Drain the lentils and add to the pan along with the plum tomatoes in their juices (leave out tomato juices if going for a drier/more sliceable mixture.).
Mix well and allow to simmer for 10 minutes (15 for drier).
Place the breadcrumbs and grated cheese in a large bowl and mix well.
Use the FP to roughly chop the nuts and seeds and mix these into the bowl.
Add the onion mixture from the pan and mix well.
Stir in two beaten eggs to bind everything together.
Spoon the nutroast mixture into the prepared loaf tin and loosely cover with tin foil. Bake in the hot oven for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and return to cook in the oven raising the temperature to 200C for a further 15 / 20 minutes.
Enjoy.
‘Til next time, Sheila.