Nut roast with rich tomato and pepper sauce

 Sometimes you want a proper roast dinner, but based purely on plant products - or vegan, even.

So, pulling together some nuts and vegetables I came up with this delicious nut roast dinner.  The sauce is gloriously rich, and there is quite a lot left which I am looking forward to slathered onto some toast.

Nut roast
Leek
Mushrooms
Olive oil
Garlic
Tuscan seasoning
Mustard
Hazelnuts
Pistachio
Walnuts
Roasted red pepper

Red pepper and tomato sauce
Olive oil
onion
garlic
roasted red pepper
cherry tomatoes
sundried tomatoes
white wine

... and also ...
Potatoes
olive oil
broccoli
green beans
carrots

1.  Cut washed potatoes into chunks, roast in olive oil in a roasting tray.
2.  Sautee chopped leeks, crushed garlic and mushrooms until soft, with a teaspoon of Tuscan seasoning and a teaspoon of grainy mustard.
3.  Blend the nuts.  Don't blend them until they are dust, but so that there are some bigger bits and some smaller bits, to give an interesting texture.  I used a handful each of hazelnuts, pistachio and walnuts, but these could be substituted with almost any nut.
4.  Mix the nuts with the leeks and mushrooms.
5.  Into a greased loaf tin, press in half the nut mixture.  Cut roasted red pepper (from a jar) into strips and cover the layer of nuts.  Cover the pepper with the rest of the nuts and press down gently.  Bake for about 30 minutes.
6.  Finely chop an onion and sautee with crushed garlic in olive oil.  Add a few chopped red peppers (from the jar), a handful of chopped cherry tomatoes and a big spoonful of sundried tomatoes.  Simmer in a little white wine until it all goes soft.  Whizz into a sauce.
7.  Steam the prepared vegetables for 10-12 minutes.
8.  Serve, scoff .... proper Sunday dinner time.

Asparagus and green beans with feta and walnut pesto

What a collision of events - summer has hit in Todmorden, so let's make the most of the weather with some delicious in season asparagus, it's also National Vegetarian Week and Love Your Local Market fortnight ... so I made this fabulous dinner with every single ingredient available from Todmorden Market.  Feta from The Crumbly Cheese, Olive oil, walnuts and garlic from me (The Mediterranean Pantry), and all the veg from Kevin on the outside market.




Baby new potatoes
Green beans
Asparagus
Feta

Baby spinach
Baby plum tomatoes
Spring onions
Radish

Walnuts
Extra virgin olive oil
Garlic
Lemon
Mint
Basil

1.  Boil the potatoes.
2.  Steam the asparagus and green beans over the potatoes.  To prep the asparagus simply bend it gently, it will naturally snap where the stem gets a bit woody.  Top and tail the beans, and but them in half.  I steam the veg over the potatoes - put them on 5 minutes after the potatoes have come to the boil.
3.  Meanwhile make the pesto.  Whizz together a small handful of walnuts, two big handfuls of basil and about 8 mint leaves with 2 big cloves of garlic (just peel and crush slightly with the back of a knife and add to the food processor), with a glug of olive oil, a spritz of lemon juice and grated lemon zest.
4.  Toss together baby spinach, tomatoes, spring onions and radish with a drizzle of olive oil.
5.  Chop feta into chunks.
6.  Gently toss together potatoes, beans and asparagus with the feta chunks, and drizzle with the pesto (you don't need that much, it packs a punch).
7.  Serve with the salad, scoff.