Tag: vegetarian

Recipe

Cashew nut roast

Nannie RaRa

My daughter has reverted to being a vegetarian and has asked for a nut roast for Christmas dinner. I’ve been experimenting and this cashew nut roast seems promising.

Ingredients

Main roast

  • 150 g cashew nuts
  • small onion
  • 125 g chestnut mushrooms
  • bunch fresh thyme
  • 4 oz breadcrumbs
  • 1 egg
  • 1 oz butter

Stuffing

  • 3 oz breadcrumbs
  • lemon
  • bunch fresh parsley
  • 1 egg

Method

Prepare the stuffing first. Make the breadcrumbs using fresh brown bread and place in a bowl.

I used white bread for both in this version, but in future I’ll use brown bread for the stuffing and white for the main roast to produce a contrast.

Chop the parsley finely – I prefer curly leafed parsley – and add to the breadcrumbs. Grate the rind from the lemon and add this, plus the juice to the breadcrumbs. Mix well then bind together using a beaten egg. Stand to one side.

Make the breadcrumbs for the main roast and place in a bowl. Crush the cashew nuts, either in a blender or use a rolling pin on a board. Mix the cashews with the breadcrumbs.

Chop both the onion and the mushrooms finely. In a cooking pan melt 1 oz butter. Add the the onion, mushrooms and the thyme leaves. Cook over a gentle heat for a couple of minutes.

Put the onion and mushroom mix into the breadcrumbs and nuts. Mix well and bind together with a beaten egg. It will be a bit crumbly, not completely solid.

Put a sheet of baking parchment into a loaf tin. Put half the main roast mix in the bottom of the tin. Spoon the stuffing on to this and then finally the last part of the main roast.

Cover with tinfoil and bake at 180 C for an hour, taking the tinfoil off for the last ten minutes to crisp the top.

Take out and either eat it hot with gravy or a sauce. It can also be eaten cold. I enjoyed a slice as it was – it would be good in a lunch box.

Enjoy!

Recipe

Nutty burgers

Nannie RaRa

We call these almond rissoles, nutty burgers. They are a very tasty vegetarian dish. The quantities below will make enough for four. I usually make a batch and give half to my daughter – we then have two meals each. The cooked burgers keep for several days in the fridge and can be eaten either hot or cold.

eggs, onion, parsley and breadcrumbs

Ingredients

  • 6 oz fresh breadcrumbs
  • 8 oz ground almonds
  • small onion
  • 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
  • 1 egg
  • 1 oz butter

Coating

  • 1 egg
  • 2 oz fresh breadcrumbs

Frying

  • vegetable or sunflower oil
  • butter

Mix the breadcrumbs and ground almonds together in a mixing bowl. The original recipe only had half the amount of ground almonds, but I find these better using more almonds.

Grate the onion into the bread and almond mix. I use the smaller part of a metal grater and find that I don’t get watery eyes.

grate onion

Chop the parsley finely. I prefer curly leaf parsley rather than the flat leaf variety.

chopped curly leaf parsley

Add the onion and parsley into the breadcrumb and almond mix.

Melt the butter and add to the mix along with a beaten egg.

melted butter, beaten egg

Mix all together, then using your hands form this into a dough like consistency.

nutty burger mix

I usually make 16 small burgers, but you can make 8 larger ones if you prefer.

The easiest way to make 16 is to divide the dough in half, then each half in half again. You now have four. Divide each of these into half and half again. Shape each of the burgers in the palm of your hand and lay out.

nutty burgers

Break the egg for the coating into a bowl, add a splash of water to make it go further, and beat together. Coat each burger by dipping it into the beaten egg and then covering it with breadcrumbs.

coated nutty burgers

Heat a frying pan with oil and butter. Add the covered burgers. My pan holds eight at a time. Cook over a medium heat for a few minutes, then turn the burgers when they are golden brown and cook the other side. Drain on kitchen paper.

frying nutty burgers

They can be eaten either hot or cold. I had my nutty burgers warm, with steamed vegetables. They were delicious.

Enjoy!