I decided to revisit some old recipes, starting with a Cranks nut roast from my very first vegetarian cookbook, now more than 30 years old. My daughter was not keen.
Apparently nut roasts are still a thing, especially for university students but she’d never eaten one she’d actually liked.
The Crank recipe I remember was based on mixed nuts, mainly peanuts, which doesn’t work for me now that I’ve developed this allergy, so I ended up making it with a mixture of hazelnuts and cashews and to liven it up, I stuck it in my smallest bundt tin.
Cranks Nut Roast (Serves 4)
- 1 Medium Sized Onion
- 25g (1oz) Butter or margarine
- 225g (8oz) Mixed nuts, i.e. Peanuts, walnuts, cashews etc.
- 100g (4oz) Wholemeal bread
- 300ml (1/4 pt) Vegetable Stock or water
- 10ml (2tsp) marmite
- 5ml (1tsp) Mixed Herbs
- 1 tomato & grated cheese (optional)
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Chop the onions and sauté in the butter until transparent.
- Grind the nuts and bread together in a liquidizer until quite fine.
- Heat the stock and yeast extract to boiling point, then combine all the ingredients together and mix well – use double the amount of stock if not adding a cheese/tomato layer.
- Turn into a greased shallow baking dish (or bundt tin) level the surface, sprinkle with a few breadcrumbs, and bake in the oven at 180°C (350°F/ Mark 4) for 30 minutes, until golden brown.
It doesn’t photograph well but tasted fine enough, with an onion gravy or cranberry sauce (nut roasts can be dry) if not brilliant so I’ve decided to play around with it until it’s better.
Though my daughter was worried it would be heavy and dense, she actually found it surprisingly light and everyone liked the inclusion of a layer of tomatoes and grated cheese in the middle.
But ideally it would be lighter and have a bit more flavour, so instead of breadcrumbs, I’m considering adding some red lentils cooked in vegetable stock with added miso. Some chopped capers could be added to the cheese/tomato layer as well.
If that’s not enough umami then obviously cheddar could be added to the red lentil mix when warm, maybe with an egg beaten to add air, in which case I’d probably go for a layer of cooked spinach in place of the cheese/tomato mix but let’s start with some red lentils