Rice, carrot and chia nut roast

I often make nut roasts for a special occasion or for a roast dinner but a few weeks back I made one just because the ingredients wanting using.  Nut roasts are great for celebrations but also great for using up bits and pieces.  We had a lot of nuts about, leftover rice, herbs in the garden and ends of old bread in the freezer.  There weren't enough vegies around to excite me into soup making.  The nut roast was just what I needed and it saw us through a week.

I made the nut roast on a Sunday when we had a freshly baked loaf of bread, it was great for meals during the week either crumbled with fried polenta and vegies for tea or sliced with cheese and chutney in a sandwich for lunch.  At the end of the week on Friday we had some left that was crumbled over a pizza, which is the best!

This is my 40th nut roast I have posted on my blog!  Wow!  In the early days I raved about them and encouraged others to eat them.  They still seem to divide people in a way that burgers don't.  (And nut roasts are just a lazy way to make a burger because they are bunged in a tin rather than having all that shaping!)  Ingredients can disappear into nut roasts such as the herbs above which seemed a lot in my hand but minimal in the roast.  And the important thing to note about nut roasts is that they are really hard to cut neatly when fresh and hot but slice beautifully the next day when cold.  If you want to see other nut roasts I have made, check out my list of links to nut roast recipes.  The possibilities are endless.

Some of my favourite nut roasts on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Chocolate and haggis nut roast 
Cottage cheese and walnut nutloaf (my Christmas nut roast)
Festive layered nut roast with tomato and herbs (v)
Parsnip, cranberry and chestnut roast
Welsh nutroast with laverbread, leeks and cheese (v) 

Rice, carrot and chia nut roast
An original Green Gourmet Giraffe recipe
Serves 6-8

2 cups cooked brown rice
3 large carrots, grated
3/4 cups dried bread crumbs
3/4 cups roasted cashews, ground
2/3 cups smoked almonds, ground
1/3 finely chopped herbs (I used parsley, chives, rosemary and thyme)
1/4 cup chia seeds
juice of 1 small lemon
1 tsp seeded mustard
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
black pepper, to taste
1 egg
1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients together.  Scrape into a greased and lined loaf tin and smooth on top.  Bake at 200 C for an hour.  Check at about 30-40 minute mark that it is not getting too brown on top and remove earlier if it feels quite firm or cover with foil to stop it getting burnt.  Cool on a wire rack.  If you can avoid slicing when straight out of the oven, let it rest for a while before slicing or slice when cold.

On the Stereo:
La Femme Chocolat - Olivia Ruiz