Chef and Owner of Bath’s finest vegan restaurant, Acorn Restaurant, and the man behind popular recipe book Plants Taste Better brings us this delicious recipe for a meat-free roast. Whether you’re veggie, vegan, partaking in Veganuary, or not, this tasty nutty dish will be a favourite on the dinner table.
Hazelnut Roast by Richard Buckley
Serves: 4
INGREDIENTS:
1 large celeriac (at least 900g/2lb to give 500g (1lb 2oz) peeled)
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic, peeled but whole
25ml (1fl oz/5 tsp) rapeseed oil
8g (¼oz/1½ tsp) sea salt
100g (3½oz/¾ cup) hazelnuts
100g (3½oz/¾ cup) cashew nuts
50g (1¾oz/1/3 cup) sunflower seeds
30g (1¼oz/¼ cup) cornflour
15g (½oz/1 tbsp) mustard or shop-bought wholegrain mustard
1/8 nutmeg, grated
rapeseed oil
METHOD:
Preheat the oven to (fan) 160°C/180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
Peel the celeriac and onion and cut into 2cm chunks. Place in a large bowl along with the garlic, rapeseed oil and 3g of the salt. Mix everything together, then spread out on a large baking tray. Cover the tray with tin foil and roast the celeriac in the oven for 30-40 minutes until soft.
Meanwhile, put the hazelnuts and cashews on a baking tray and roast for 7 minutes or until golden. Put the sunflower seeds in a frying pan with a splash of oil and fry until dark golden. Transfer the seeds to a food processor, process until fine crumbs, then put in a large bowl.
Put the cashews and hazelnuts in the food processor and pulse to a coarse crumb, with some lumps, then add to the sunflower seeds. Put the onions, garlic and celeriac into the food processor and pulse to a coarse mash. Add to the nuts and seeds and mix everything together.
Add the cornflour, mustard, remaining 5g of salt and grated nutmeg and mix well.
Lay out a 45cm strip of cling film, then lay another strip on top. Spoon a quarter of the mix onto this and form into a rough sausage shape about 4cm thick. Fold over the bottom edge of the cling film and roll the mix up to form a sausage about 3cm thick. Fold the cling film over and roll the sausage tightly in the cling film. Twist one end of the cling film to tie it closed. Squeeze the air out of the other side and twist the other end to form a tight, round, water-tight sausage shape with no air pockets. Tie closed. Repeat with the remaining mix to make 4 sausages in total.
Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add the sausages. Turn down to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, then remove one at a time and plunge into a bowl of ice-cold water. Once cool, transfer to the fridge for at least an hour but ideally overnight, to firm up.
Remove the cling film from the nut roast, trim off the ends and cut into 1.5cm thick slices. Line a baking tray with baking parchment and lay the nut roast slices on it. Drizzle oil over each slice and put into the oven for 25 minutes to warm through and crisp up.
Plants Taste Better by Richard Buckley, £25 Jacqui Small. Photography is by Kim Lightbody.
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Inspiration/ImageCredits: Plants Taste Better by Richard Buckley, £25 Jacqui Small. Photography is by Kim Lightbody.
