If you’re trying to cut down on meat this festive season, try this satisfying nut roast! Serve it with cranberry sauce and gravy alongside your usual Christmas dinner trimmings. This recipe is versatile and forgiving – you can serve all year round, not just for Christmas!
Ingredients: (serves 10-12)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
4 garlic cloves
1 large carrot
2 sticks of celery
1 medium potato/sweet potato
180g chestnuts
180g chestnut purée
100g nuts (e.g. almonds, pecan, cashew, walnut)
75g dried cranberries
75g of buckwheat, cooked (or your grain of choice!)
3 eggs
2 pieces of bread/100g breadcrumbs
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp ground pepper
Method:
- Cook the buckwheat as per the instructions (once cooked, rinse and set aside to cool).
- Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180 °C (fan). Line a bread tin with greaseproof paper and grease lightly.
- Prepare your ingredients –
- If you’re not using pre-made breadcrumbs, tear 2 pieces of bread into chunks and blitz in a food processor until you reach a powdery, breadcrumb consistency.
- Roughly chop the nuts and set them aside.
- Chop/crumble the chestnuts into small pieces. We’d recommend buying pre-cooked chestnuts, you can source these (and chestnut purée) in most large supermarkets.
- Finely chop the onion and garlic and set aside in a bowl.
- Wash, dry and dice the potato (skin on for extra fibre), carrot, and celery.
- Add the olive oil, onion, and garlic to a pan and cook for a few minutes until softened.
- Add the potato, carrot, and celery and continue cooking for a further 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the chestnuts, stir and cook for a few minutes. Turn the heat off and leave the vegetable mix to cool for a few minutes.
- In the meantime, combine the dry ingredients (cranberries, nuts, breadcrumbs, rosemary, and pepper) in a large mixing bowl. Add the buckwheat, eggs, and chestnut purée and stir. Now add your vegetables in and mix thoroughly. If preferred – get your hands messy and mix by hand! The mixture should be sticky but not runny.
- Pour the mixture into the tin and level the top off with the back of a spoon, compacting down well as you do.
- Cover the tin with foil and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for a further 20-30 minutes until golden brown.
- For the best results allow the loaf to cool before slicing. You can cook ahead of time and reheat before serving.
Top tips –
Can’t find chestnut purée? Use 4 tbsp of tahini/nut- or seed-butter of choice, or sweet potato purée (blend a cooked sweet potato with a little water into a purée). Try to use a neutral flavoured alternative so as not to add an overpowering flavour.
Nut allergy? Substitute for your seed of choice.
Not a fan of cranberries? Substitute for raisins, sultanas, dried apricots, figs…
Why not check out these articles – 6 easy tips to feel your best over Christmas – without sacrifice! and everything you need to know about fibre.
Questions? Feel free to get in touch with our team of Nutritional Therapists on live chat, weekdays from 8am to 8pm.
