Festive vegan nut roast - this delicious vegan mushroom and chestnut nut roast is perfect for a special Christmas dinner! Post sponsored by Appletiser.
Nut Roast may be a bit of a cliche for vegans and vegetarians at Christmas and it does have a bit of a reputation for being dry and dull. Done well however it can be a very impressive and delicious centrepiece for a special meal such as Christmas dinner.
This recipe is another in my series for Appletiser – one recipe a month for a meal that is the perfect pairing with a glass of Appletiser. Just like the delicious drink my recipes are all free from added sugar and contain at least one portion of your five a day!
My festive vegan nut roast is packed full of flavour from herbs, nutritional yeast, miso, white wine, nuts, mushrooms and Christmassy chestnuts. It is anything but bland and boring!
It is even better served alongside a refreshing Appletiser; which I think is also a perfect classy non-alcoholic option for Christmas dinner drinks.
This vegan nut roast is easy to make, but it does take a while to cook. The good news is that the mix will keep fine in the fridge for a day or so, so you can prepare everything the day before you want to serve it. It is also great re-heated once it has been cooked; so, you can also cook it completely, store it in the fridge then simply re-heat to serve.
If you bake it in a ring tin as I did it makes it even more impressive, especially if you garnish it with cranberries, rosemary and spices! Don't worry if you don't have a ring tin however, it can also be baked in a 2lb loaf tin and it will still look lovely if you dress it up a bit!
How To Make Festive Vegan Nut Roast:
Start by mixing together ground flaxseed and water to make a flax egg. Set aside until it goes gloopy.
Meanwhile, simmer cubed butternut squash and carrot until tender then drain very well and mash.
Fry finely chopped onion and celery in a little olive oil until soft then add finely chopped chestnut mushrooms and crushed garlic and continue to fry until all the excess liquid has evaporated.
Add tomato puree and white wine and cook until the liquid has evaporated then remove from the heat.
Pulse mixed nuts in a food processor until they are fairly finely chopped, but still retain some texture. Add cooked chestnuts and pulse again until they too are finely chopped. Don't go too far, you want chopped nuts, not flour.
Tip the chopped nuts into the mushroom mixture along with the mashed vegetables, flax egg and some breadcrumbs, herbs, nutritional yeast, miso paste and plenty of salt and pepper. Give it a good stir and taste to check if it needs more seasoning; be generous with the salt!
If you are using a ring tin, then you will need to grease it well then line it with overlapping strips of baking parchment. If you are using a loaf tin, then grease and line it with a strip of baking parchment that comes above the edge of the tin.
Scrape the nut roast mixture into the tin, spread it level and pack it down well. At this point you can cover the tin and refrigerate overnight if you prefer.
Otherwise, cover the top of the tin with tin foil and bake the nut roast at 180C/350F/gas mark 4 for one hour then remove the foil and return to the oven for ten minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for a while before turning it out onto a serving platter and garnishing as you like.
Serve with all the trimmings – roast potatoes and parsnips, Brussel sprouts, gravy, cranberry sauce and an Appletiser!
Variations:
- You can use whatever variety of nuts you prefer; I go for a mix of almonds, cashews, hazelnuts and walnuts.
- For the chestnuts I use the kind that come precooked and vacuum packed.
- You can replace some or all of the butternut squash and carrot with parsnip.
- You can use vegetable stock instead of the white wine.
Festive Vegan Nut Roast Recipe:
Festive Vegan Nut Roast
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 2 tablespoon water
- 300 g (10.5 oz) butternut squash cubed
- 150 g (5.3 oz) carrot (one large) cut into chunks
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion peeled and very finely chopped
- 1 large stick celery very finely chopped
- 250 g (9oz) chestnut mushrooms very finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic peeled and crushed
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- 60 ml (¼ cup) vegan white wine
- 200 g (7oz) mixed nuts
- 180 g (6 oz) cooked chestnuts
- 175 g (6 oz) dry breadcrumbs
- 4 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 2 teaspoon miso paste
- ½ teaspoon each dried rosemary sage and thyme
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Grease a 2lb loaf or ring tin and line with baking parchment. (See above for instructions on how to line a ring tin).
- Mix together the ground flaxseed and water in a small bowl. Set aside until it goes gloopy.
- Place the cubed butternut squash and carrot in a pan of salted water. Bring up to a boil and simmer until tender then drain very well and mash thoroughly.
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan over a low heat. Add the finely chopped onion and celery and cook gently for about 10 minutes until soft.
- Add the finely chopped chestnut mushrooms and crushed garlic and continue to fry until all the excess liquid has evaporated.
- Stir in the tomato purée and white wine and cook until the liquid has evaporated then remove from the heat.
- Pulse the mixed nuts in a food processor until they are fairly finely chopped, but still retain some texture. Add the cooked chestnuts and pulse again until they too are finely chopped. Don't go too far, you want chopped nuts, not flour.
- Tip the chopped nuts into the mushroom mixture along with the mashed vegetables, flax egg, breadcrumbs, nutritional yeast, miso paste, rosemary, sage, thyme and plenty of salt and pepper. Give it a good stir and taste to check if it needs more seasoning.
- Scrape the nut roast mixture into the prepared tin, spread it level and pack it down well. At this point you can cover the tin and refrigerate overnight if you prefer.
- Otherwise, cover the top of the tin with tin foil and bake the nut roast for one hour, remove the foil and return to the oven for ten minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before turning it out, garnishing as you please and serving.
Fiona jk42
This sounds great, I have added it to my Veggie Christmas recipe board
Uma
I made this yesterday for Christmas Day. It's a great recipe, full of flavour. Couple of things: I think this needs a food processor - even using one took an age to prep everything. Also do not omit the resting time after taking the roast out of the oven - 20 mins is not enough in my opinion and mine partly collapsed when taken out of the tin - it needs a good 45 mins to 1 hour to firm up. Other than that, really good recipe and I will definitely make again.
Dan
One for my list and thanks for the detailed write-up
Katie Lloyd-McMahon
I swear Marks and Spencers are selling this identical item in their Christmas Range this year. The picture even look the same! I hope you got credit 😀
Lyndsay
Thank you for this recipe, it really made our first Christmas dinner as vegetarians special. I had only ever had a nut roast once before, and this was the first time I'd ever made one - it was moist, filling and most importantly, it was Christmassy. The only changes I made was using fresh herbs instead of dried, and I could not find flaxseed so last minute so I did use one egg to bind everything (sorry!). I served it with some homemade cranberry sauce and all the trimmings and it was delicious. I'll be adding this recipe to my list of favourites!
Judy
Made a half quantity of this yesterday and baked it in a 1lb loaf tin. A really delicious, moist nut roast and a great way to use up some spicy roasted squash (didn’t use herbs because of this) and finish up the Christmas cranberry sauce!! Thanks for another brilliant recipe, Hannah.
Jackie
How long did you cook half the recipe for please?
Heather
Can anyone help ?
How big was the ring tin you used?
Thanks
Hannah
It's a 2lb ring tin, 27cm wide, 6cm deep, with a 13cm hole in the middle.
Kacey
Can this be made ahead and frozen?
Hannah
Hi Kacey, I haven't tried but I don't see why not.
Kacey George
Hi Hannah,
Just to let you know it froze beautifully and tasted great on Christmas day. ....as did the other 3 of your recipes that I cooked.
Thank you so much for always being utterly reliable with your amazing recipe offerings
Kacey George
It's in the freezer so I'll let you know how it goes
Gerry Goring
Did you freeze it before you cooked it?
Kacey George
Yes I did & it worked beautifully!
Gerry Goring
Excellent, thank you
Nora
Just made it today to find a good nut roast recipe for our vegan Christmas (this was a third recipe we tested) and Domestic Gothess literally saved the day! Delicious in taste and great texture, the only thing I did differently is that I roasted pumpkin and carrots so they are not too watery. And also roasted mixed nuts and used fresh herbs that I fried up first before putting in the onions etc. Thanks for the great recipe!
Angela
I made this for xmas can’t believe how tasty it was and filling. I’ll be cooking this regularly from now on as it allows me to have a Sunday dinner which I was really missing since becoming vegan.