Nut Roast

This is the finest creation of our legendary member who cooked a different bake every time. As is usual with our recipes he made it first at home and used up all the bits of vegetables he had left over from other meals. The results were so good that he developed it at work with a bit of trial and error until he settled on the combination of nuts and vegetables that gave the best taste. This is the basic recipe we use today. For us in the Café it is easy to use a variety of vegetables, when you are making a hundred portions one aubergine more or less does not matter, to reduce it back to a domestic level is more difficult. If you cannot use exactly the same quantity of vegetables do not panic, it will work with different combinations so long as the total weight is the same. It is still a good recipe for using up left-overs, any cooked veg you have can be included in the total bulk, just add it to the mixture before it goes in the oven. If you want to use more expensive nuts feel free, we use peanuts as the bulk because they are cheaper, for a special occasion you can go mad and use what nuts you want.

Ingredients

  1. 1lb (450g) peanuts
  2. 8oz (225g) hazelnuts or walnuts
  3. 8 oz (225g) red lentils
  4. 2oz (50g) aubergine
  5. 2 sticks celery
  6. 1 medium carrot
  7. 1 medium courgette
  8. 1 small onion
  9. 2 cloves garlic
  10. 4oz (100g) mushroom
  11. bunch of parsley
  12. 4 oz (100g) bread crumbs
  13. 2 teaspoon oregano
  14. 1 teaspoon thyme
  15. 1 teaspoon marjoram
  16. 1 teaspoon paprika
  17. 2 tablespoon soy sauce
  18. 2 tablespoon sunflower oil
  19. salt and pepper

Method

First of all wash and drain the lentils, cover with cold water and bring to the boil then simmer until cooked.
Grate or chop the nuts and keep to one side.
Wash all the vegetables, peeling if necessary, then grate the carrot and celery and finely chop everything else.
Fry the onions and garlic in a heavy pan until soft then add the mushrooms chopped herbs, spices, seasoning and aubergine and cook gently until the aubergine is soft. If your pan is big enough, add the rest of the vegetables and cook on for 10 minutes, if not put the cooked vegetables in a mixing bowl and sauté the remaining vegetables for 10 minutes then mix together at the end.
Stir in the soy sauce and then add the nuts and breadcrumbs and mix it all together evenly. The mixture should be wet but not sloppy, if it is too dry moisten with a little vegetable stock or water.
Put into an oiled loaf tin and cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes at 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5.
Serve with one of the following: Onion Gravy, Sweet Pepper Sauce, Mushroom Gravy or Tomato & Coriander Sauce.
With these different sauces you can adapt the one roast to a variety of menus, serving it with plain boiled rice and a pepper sauce for example, or going for the full monty with roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding with gravy, either way it is a rich and delicious meal and a fitting finale to our Bake section.



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