Tuesday 18 October 2011

Green (pea) Nut Roast

One of my passions is nut roast.   It is there when I need a centre of a meal, especially if my family has a roast dinner.  I often make nut roasts without recipes.  Yet I still seek out recipes for inspiration.  Back in April I ran a blog event called A Neb at Nut Roast.  The blogging community is always full of great ideas.  It is why I love being a part of it.  This event was no exception.

I promised myself to try a few of the nut roast recipes that were sent to me as part of the event.  The first one I tried was Torwen's nut roast with the quirky name of Peanut-Free Pea Nut Roast.  I made some alterations.  As is my way!  The main thing was to pack the nut roast with nuts (naturally) and green peas.

I just couldn't resist a nut roast so full of green.  Look at those peas!  Look at the glorious shades of green!  Unfortunately once baked, the colour faded somewhat.  The pea flavour was quite prominent.  So much so that it was quite a sweet nut roast, even despite a generous amount of seasoning.

Despite the muted colour, I loved this nut roast.  I made it quite some times ago.  In the middle of the year.  For a family roast dinner when my parents go home from some travels.  As always the nut roast made a feast of my roast dinner.  

I'd love to tell you a bit more about the dinner.  If only it wasn't so long ago.  Instead I will tell you of some startling events during the last few days.  We saw a pig try and escape at the Geelong Show.  We saw a man in handcuffs in front of the supermarket.  Sylvia fell on her head on a train ride.  Life is never dull.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe
This time last year: Spinach Rice Gratin
This time two years ago: Mr Natural Gourmet Vegetarian Pizza – heaps of veg...
This time three years ago: Biscuits like birdseed

Green (pea) Nut Roast
Adapted from Torwen
serves about 4-6

185g raw cashews
55g brazil nuts
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
320g frozen peas
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 1/2 tsp stock powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
freshly ground black pepper

Lightly dry fry cashews in the frypan.  Blitz nuts until well ground.  Cook onion with a pinch of salt in olive oil for about 3 minutes, until translucent but not coloured.  Add peas and garlic.  Gently fry until just tender but still bright green.  Mix cooked onion garlic and peas, ground nuts and remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Check and adjust seasoning.  Bake in a lined (or unlined silicone) loaf tin at 200 C for about 30 min or until golden brown - I think I did 45 min because I forgot it after the timer rang.

On the Stereo:
Little Earthquakes: Tori Amos

This post is part of Vegan Month of Food October 2011.  Go to my Vegan MoFo list for more Vegan MoFo posts.

15 comments:

  1. So healthy and nutritious. It looks quite filling too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This looks amazing. I LOVE peas and I love nut roasts so WIN WIN!
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. what a delicious (and nutritious!) dinner!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I remember Torwen's nut roast from the round-up, the colour is impressive even though it fades after baking. I like the way you have served peas with your pea nut roast! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. The ingredients in this nut roast sound very good - I am sure that it tastes amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love that the eventful events of your last few days were thrown in so casually at the end. I hope Sylvia's head has recovered!

    I have still not made or tried nut roast - the challenge is that my partner doesn't like nuts. I think I need to give it a go regardless though, as your recipes are collectively very tempting.

    ReplyDelete
  7. how nice! I'd love to try nut roast!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks Leaf - yep, nut roast always fills the gap

    Thanks Jeni - then you must try this

    Thanks Lisa - love nut roast for dinner

    Thanks Mel - I grew up eating peas with roast dinners - I did notice it was peas with peas but I love them enough to eat them this way

    Thanks Cakelaw - I think I got it about right though I wondered if it needed even more seasoning

    Thanks Kari - Sylvia is fine (even though she also managed to fall on her head yesterday too!) That is a shame that your partner hates nuts - I love them - have you tried different nuts - I know that one of the nut roasts in the first neb at nut roast events I did came from Lysy who didn't like nuts but she enjoyed the nut roast - you need to start with a nut roast with lots of vegies and tofu and beans so the flavour is not too prominent - softly softly! Or just make yourself nut roast and serve yummy sides so he is satisfied!

    Thanks Anh - hope you get to make one - they are so good!

    ReplyDelete
  9. It's funny how different people "staples" can be! For me, nutroasts are a fancy extravagant creation that I haven't yet psyched myself to make, for you, they're something you could make with your eyes closed! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I hope Sylvia is okay! You said it, certainly never dull!

    As for the nut roast, I love that it's filled with green. When I first saw the title I wondered if it was green pea flour (since I've just discovered it), but I like the peas themselves even better. It does look really good!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Glad you liked the pea-nut roast. Your version looks delicious :)
    The cashew nuts of course enhance the already slightly sweet character. Hazelnuts might work (IF you roast them and scrub off the skin - horrible thought though).

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks Hannah - it's horses for courses (now that the melbourne cup is coming up that seems an appropriate metaphor) - I have a few recipes I would like to try but can't quite bring myself to do it

    Thanks Ricki - kids are resilient (touchwood) - would love to try green pea flour in a nut roast - what a great idea

    Thanks Torwen - loved the loaf (including the name) I love both cashews and hazelnuts so would love them both - though I feel that cashews and peas are better bedfellows

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love the green too!! Peas are my favourite.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Is this a firm loaf?

    It looks wonderful...

    Nancye...

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for dropping by. I love hearing from you. Please share your thoughts and questions. Annoyingly the spammers are bombarding me so I have turned on the pesky captcha code (refresh to find an easy one if you don't like the first one)