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The World’s Best Nut Roast
Okay, Okay, so the title is a little boastful, but whenever I cook it people fall in love with it and beg me for the recipe. So here it is; you can stop begging now.
The Boring Bits
- Serves 3-4
- Preparation time: 25-30 minutes
- Cooking time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 14 oz (400g) tofu, chopped into 1/2 centimetre cubes
- 6 oz (170g) onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp of finely-chopped dried hot chillis
- 1 oz (28g) butter
- 3 vegetable stock cubes
- 1/2 cup (110ml) boiling water (for the stock cubes)
- 4oz (110g) finely-chopped closed-cap mushrooms
- 3 1/2 oz (100g) pine nuts
- 9 oz (250g) cashew nuts
- 3 oz (80g) walnuts, halved =or= 3oz (80g) chestnuts, halved
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 tsp fresh basil (or 3 tsp dried)
- salt and black pepper
Throwing it all together
It’s worth preparing the nuts and veg before you do anything else, because there’s quite a lot of them.
The garlic needs to be crushed - just place the unpeeled clove on a chopping board, place the blade of the knife flat on top of it, and press down reasonably hard. The skin should flake away as the clove crushes. Then just separate out the crushed chunks.
The cashew nuts need to be finely ground. This is possible in a blender if you stop once in a while to jumble up the remaining whole nuts, but a food processor is probably easier if you’ve got one. Your other option is a reasonable-sized pestle and mortar.
The other ingredients (tofu, onions, mushrooms, walnuts/chestnuts) should be prepared as described in the ingredients list.
Now make up your stock from the cubes (alternatively you can use fresh stock if you have it, of course). Add it to a large saucepan, and then add the onions, chilli and garlic. Bring it to the boil, and simmer for about 10 minutes. There should still be enough liquid to cover most of the onions at the end of simmering. Top the pan up if it runs low.
In a large bowl, combine the tofu, eggs, butter, basil, walnuts/chestnuts, pine and cashew nuts and mushrooms. They come together best if you stir them all in with a fork. Season with as much salt and pepper as you like.
Once the stock and onion mixture are ready, fold it into the tofu and egg mixture, mixing thoroughly so that all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
(Note: it’s possible to put the mixture in a container and refrigerate overnight, if you want to prepare it ahead of time.)
Now, grease a loaf tin with some butter, and place the mixture in the tin. Frankly, it’ll look pretty unappetising at this point, but it’ll cook beautifully. Really. I promise.
Cook it for 40 minutes at 350F (180C). If you don’t have a fan oven then make sure it’s on the shelf nearest the heating element (yes, American ovens with the element down at the bottom, I’m looking at you…)
When you stick a knife or a skewer into the loaf it should come out clean, without any liquid mixture stuck to it. Leave it for another ten minutes or so if it doesn’t quite seem cooked at 40 minutes.
You can serve this with just about anything which would go with meat. Roast potatoes can be fantastic, or you can try something different. Last time I did this, I cooked it along with honey-mustard baby carrots and asparagus garnished with parmesan.
On the other hand, the first time I ever cooked it was as part of a Christmas dinner (where the assembled meat-eaters proceeded to ignore the turkey I’d spent 5 hours over, and tuck into this instead, ingrates…) To give it a more christmassy feel that time, I used the Chestnuts in place of the Walnuts on the ingredients list.
However you serve it, the veggies in your life will love you for this. Just don’t lose the recipe; they might never forgive you…
July 30th, 2005 at 11:05 am
Hello.
About to make use of this recipe. Now, the vegetable stock cubes I’ve got (France), call for 1/2 a cube for the amount of water called for (1/2 a cup).
I don’t know whether the ‘3 cubes’ called for in the recipe ared meant to get excess veg stock on purpose, so as to spice the whole roast nut.
In short what is the usual number of veg stock cubes of the sort used in the above recipe that go with 1/2 a cup of water? Is it three (unlikely) or less? How many exactly?
Thanks,
Haim
August 2nd, 2005 at 1:08 pm
Hi Haim,
I find that a fairly strong stock works quite well, but depending on the cubes you’ve got, it could be possible to overdo it.
It sounds like you have bouillon cubes, which tend to be stronger. I’d probably go with 1 cube in 1/2 cup of water and see how strong the stock tastes before I add it to the nut roast mix.
Good luck with the cooking, and let me know how it turns out!
August 27th, 2006 at 1:22 am
Hi!
I’ve been trauling the internet for hours to find a nut roast recipe that doesn’t seem dull……looks like i’ve found one!
I do have a realy silly question though….you mention finely grounding the cashew nuts, and the rest of the ingredients should be prepared as in the ingredients list. But the pine nuts and walnuts are only listed with weights. Are they added in whole to add texture or should they be chopped/crushed in some way?
Second silly question……I have a vegan coming for dinner…..I’ve noticed that a lot of vegan recipes use soy sauce to bind the mixture instead of eggs, would that ruin the taste or do you think it would work?
Thanks for your help! I’m a true nut roast virgin!
Rich
August 28th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Hi Rich!
I’ve always added the pine nuts whole since they tend to soften during cooking and add more of a “bite” than a crunch. Sometimes I quarter the walnuts, sometimes I leave them whole. Either way works - the texture of the roast as a whole is “smoother” with the walnuts chopped.
As for vegan alternatives… I’m assuming that you mean “soy milk“, not “soy sauce” - soy sauce would render the whole thing horribly salty!
I’ve never tried it, but I suspect that about 1½ cups of soy milk would probably work in place of the eggs. The soy milk is unlikely to act as well as a binding agent, though, so you may need to increase the cooking time slightly.
Whenever I’m cooking something that’s new to me, and which I’m going to share with others, I always cook a couple of test batches on my own before-hand. It’s the best way to avoid any surprises when it really counts!
December 18th, 2006 at 5:57 am
Hello there,
I am doing a nut roast for my stepdaughter and her husband and small son. Can this recipe be frozen a couple of weeks in advance? I have never done a nut roast before, are there any obvious pitfalls?
December 19th, 2006 at 11:41 am
What chestnuts, none listed in ingredients and what do you do with the walnuts, leave them whole?
Sorry to be picky but it is not clear.
December 21st, 2006 at 7:35 am
Ok, way late off the mark here (I notice this was last discussed in August) but apparently you can make a decent binding agent to replace the egg by using ground flaxseeds mixed with some vegetable oil to form a paste. I *think* it’s about a tablespoon of flaxseeds to 1.5 tablespoons oil to equal one egg. Flaxseeds are very healthy (lots of omegas) but they can have a bit of a strong nutty taste, but as this is a nut roast recipe…
PS - I’m going to give this recipe a go if my veggie friends come to Christmas dinner. Actually I’ll give it a go anyway because I just like nut roast.
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:34 am
Primrose: I’ve never actually tried freezing it. I’m not sure that you’d get good results freezing the mixture before cooking, but if you cook the Nut Roast, let it cool and then immediately freeze I imagine it will be just fine to reheat it later. (Usual caveats about reheating/not refreezing/”at your own risk” etc. apply). If you try it, let me know how it turns out!
elaine: Thanks for the questions. I’ll fix the recipe shortly. I’ve always used whole shelled walnuts, and halved them before adding them to the recipe.
Poison Ivy: thanks for the tip! Should be useful for anyone who wants to make a vegan version.
December 23rd, 2006 at 1:50 am
Well it’s Christmas Eve and last night the housemates and I celebrated an early household Christmas dinner. Several members of our house including myself are semi veg (we occansioally indulge in fish). The other meat eating members were up for it when we suggested a nut roast.
I spent about 10 minutes trawling through the internet and came across your stereotypical lentil and celery etc varieties until I stumbled upon your recipe. I thought it sounded kind of weird so I gave it a crack.
Wow. Our household are converts. Even the most hardened carnivores cleaned their plates. Well done recipe maker! Will be passing recipe on to lots of happy friends.
The only slight difference I made was that they didn’t have any walnuts at the supermarket (London at this time of year!) so I used pecans in their place and they were lovely.
December 25th, 2006 at 9:20 am
we’re just making your nut roast the chilli is a brilliant idea
happy christmas from
kim
colin
tony
lena
in London
October 24th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Hi there
I really want to try your nut roast
I am wondering What tofu do you use ? hard/ soft silken etc
October 26th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Hi Sue.
To be honest, I just tend to grab whatever’s available in the store, but I believe that it’s usually “Firm” tofu, and that sounds right, from the “tofu type” descriptions here.