Must Have Recipes

The Ultimate Nut Roast

I know it’s a cliché but it’s a useful one to have, and I never get tired of the stuff. Serves 4-6

Basic recipe:
2tbsp olive oil
1 large-ish onion, chopped finely
2 or 3 cloves of garlic chopped or crushed
500g raw carrots, peeled and grated
Chopped peanuts or half a jar of peanut butter
½ a loaf of bread, can be any colour (let’s be inclusive here), stale is best
2 tbsp dried thyme
3 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 200°C (or just stick it in with whatever else is in there and adjust the cooking time!)

In a large frying pan (I use my wok), soften the onion and the garlic on a medium heat. Add the carrot and cook for another 5 or ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

Take the pan off the heat and add all of the remaining ingredients. The mixture should be a bit sticky, but not wet so you may have to add a little water.

Press the mixture into a baking dish (I use a cake tin and serve it in slices, although you will have to grease the tin with margarine if you want to turn it out) and put in the oven for about half an hour, or until the top goes a bit crispy.

Best served with roasties and gravy! Also brilliant the next day in a sandwich with mustard, although it is unlikely you will have any leftovers, as carnivores seem to enjoy this too.

Variations:
You can use any old veg instead of carrots, as long as it’s grateable (except potato). I’ve used courgette, squash and beetroot before with equally good results.

Use whichever nut you can get most easily or cheaply, depending on your priorities. Pretty much anything will work: try walnuts, or chestnuts for extra Christmassiness. You could even go nut free if you aren’t a nut fan.

You can even add a tin of butter, kidney or haricot beans at the last stage. Or for a Moroccan style roast, add chick peas and replace the thyme with 1 tsp ground coriander and 2tsp cumin seeds.

The Only Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe You Will Ever Need

Yes, it is vegan, but nobody will know, shhh!
Serves 6

Pudding:
250ml soya milk
100ml water
200g chopped dates
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
115g vegan margarine
115g brown sugar
200g self raising flour
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt

Sauce:
200g brown sugar
150g vegan margarine
100g golden syrup
Splash of soy milk

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and grease a 20x20cm cake tin or baking dish.

Heat the dates, soy milk and water in a saucepan and simmer until the dates are soft (it only takes a couple of minutes). Take off the heat and add the bicarbonate of soda, which will make it froth up. It’s very exciting.

While it cools down a bit, cream the margarine and sugar together and stir in the fizzy mixture.

Sift in the flour, spices and salt and mix together. Don’t be too enthusiastic. It’s ok to have one or two lumps and over mixing it will stop it from rising.

Pour the mixture into the dish and put it straight in the oven for about half an hour, until a you can stick a knife in and it comes out clean.

Just before it comes out of the oven, make the sauce by melting all of the ingredients except the soy milk in a pan and simmering for 2 or 3 minutes. Take it off the heat and stir in the soy to cool it a tad.

Pour some sauce over each slice of pudding and eat it hot, with vegan custard (just make up Bird’s custard powder with soy milk).

I defy even the most stringent vegaphobe to resist that on any cold, winter day!