vegetarian roast dinner

I know you said not nut roast, but this is tasty we normally have it at Christmas

Carrot and nut roast
Ingredients:

100g onion, finely chopped
450g carrot, grated
225g mushrooms, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
80g fresh breadcrumbs
50g ground almonds
30g pinenuts, finely chopped
60g hard cheese, grated
2 cloves garlic
2 eggs
25g butter
fresh chopped herbs – 2tsp each of oregano, rosemary, thyme (or choose your own savoury combo)

1. Saute the onions and garlic in the butter. Add the mushrooms and cook to soften them and remove moisture.
2. Add carrot, celery and herbs and cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Add ground almonds and pinenuts, stir well and remove from heat.
4. Mix together the grated cheese and breadcrumbs.
5. Allow the loaf mix to cool slightly before stirring in half of the grated cheese and breadcrumbs mix, and then the eggs (save the other half of the cheese and breadcrumbs for a topping). Mix well.
6. Place in a silicon, or buttered, 2lb loaf tin. Top with the remaining cheese and breadcrumb mix.
7. Cook in a pre-heated oven (180C/160C fan) for about 60 minutes. Check it about 45 minutes in and if the topping is getting too brown cover with a piece of tin foil. Test it’s cooked with a skewer, which should come out clean.

Wild Mushroom Pudding

Ingredients

For the suet crust pastry:
8oz/225g self-raising flour
4oz vegetable suet
pinch of salt
1 tbsp chopped parsley (optional)
4floz/120ml water

For the filling:
8-10 medium shallots, sliced
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
10oz of assorted wild mushrooms, sliced
4floz/120ml red wine
A glug cognac
1 tbsp muscovado sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Method

First prepare the filling:
Heat 1 tbsp of oil and sauté the shallots and 1 clove of garlic until soft, then add the bay leaf and sugar and continue cooking until brown. Set aside, remove bay leaf.
Sauté one clove of garlic, thyme and mushrooms in 1 tbsp of oil; then stir in the wine, cognac and black pepper and continue cooking over a low heat for 5 minutes. Set aside.
Now make the pastry:
Mix together the flour, parsley, suet and salt.
Add the water and mix with a fork to make the dough.
Cut off a quarter of the pastry and reserve for the lid.
Knead and roll out dough to about 5mm thick. Line a greased 2 pint/1.2 litre pudding basin with the dough. Fill with alternate layers of the prepared mushroom and onion mixtures.
Roll out the remaining pastry to form a lid. Wet the edges and press together to seal. Cover with greased foil and tie with string.

Steam the pudding for about 2 hours.

How about Chilli-non-carne cottage pie? No I haven't made it (I am not a vegetarian, just able to cook vegetarian dishes, but got a rampant carnivore in the house), but I have done chilli-non-carne (not recently), and I have made chilli into a version of cottage pie, and I can't see any reason it shouldn't work!

I would forget about the roast dinner bit - without meat it's somewhat lacking
What about a wonderful array of poached veggies with a caper mayo or a mushroom ragout with poached eggs, a veggie paella, broccoli and gorgonzola pie.... just a few ideas from a wonderful book by Yotam Ottolenghi called "Plenty" - truly inspired!

ooh some wonderful ideas coming along great. Thankyou guys

I disagree - I love roast veggies, and don't feel the need for a focal point, ie nut roast. Although a spicy stuffed butternut is lovely, topped with cheese & nuts

I prefer a veggie bake rather than roast.
Great tip about Yotam Ottolenghi's book, Patchninja - I love his recipes in the weekend supplements so I'll look out for it.

I agree - Plenty is one of the best cookery books I've bought for ages. My few ideas;

Glamorgan sausage baked as toad in the hole
Mini-pumpkins stuffed with pearl barley, roast peppers and goat's cheese
Baked butternut squash (hundreds of way to do this with various spices/cheeses etc)
Celeriac, leek and Wensleydale bake with walnuts
You can also pop all manner of things into filo pastry and bake them to good effect as parcels
Wrap cous cous, sultanas, herbs and feta inside slices of grilled aubergine and bake with a tomato sauce.
Garlic, cream cheese, apricot and pinenut stuffing (I've posted the recipe elsewhere on another thread) is fab and could be served as a bake.

Veggie roast - best meal of the week here.

So there!

Mmmmm a lovely plate of roasted veggies with a good Marmitey gravy... drooooooool

I've come off having meat with my roast diner since moving in with my partner (she's the resident vegi). Gotta say I don't find the meal any less enjoyable, especially when doign a tray of roast veg and using it for fresh gravy! nom nom!

Cheese, cauliflower and Broccoli tartlets are nice to do with sunday roasts though!

For special-occasion roasts I usually make a tofu turkey (tofurkey!). Done with the right stuffing and glaze it is tofu that is not just edible but gorgeous! I usually make it with my Mum's orange and rosemary stuffing and a maple/orange glaze. It comes out of the oven golden brown and so moreish (although if you can save any, like any good roast, it makes a killer left-overs sandwich).


So, for the 'turkey' bit you need a couple of packets of firm tofu. Mash or blend to a fine paste (the finer it is the better it will set). I usually add a couple of teaspoons of soy sauce, a pinch of cumin and half tsp of dried sage at this stage but experimenting is fun!.

Then line a sieve or small colander with paper towels and press 3/4 of the mix in so that it lines the sieve but the inside is hollow -if that makes sense. Place another paper towel on top then put a bowl inside the whole setup so that it fits snugly. roll the leftover into a ball, wrap in cling film and place in a bowl. Wrap the whole lot up and chill for up to a day - I usually leave mine overnight.


That's the hard part over (and it probably takes longer to type than write). For the stuffing you can use any favourite recipe...mine is: blend or tear 6 stale-ish pieces of sandwich bread to rough breadcrumbs. You can use any bread, I think a rich tasting dark soft rye gives the best flavour. Add a tablespoon of soft butter or table spread, a few spears of rough chopped rosemary leaves, a chopped shallot or small onion, salt and pepper, the grated rind of an orange and a teaspoon of the juice (save the rest for the glaze). Roughly blend or mix until just combined.

To cook - unpack the top layers of your tofu but keep it in the sieve. Place your stuffing mix loosely into the hollow of the tofurkey then roll or press out your leftover tofu into a circle the size of the top of the sieve then seal the stuffing in. If this top bit crumbles that is fine - just wet your fingers and smooth it back down.

Then place a wide, lightly greased roasting pan over the top of the sieve and gently but quickly flip it (like turning out a cake). If luck and a fine-mashed tofu mix are on your side you will have a perfect dome of tofu.

Next step is the glaze - I usually bang the rest of the orange juice, a tsp of olive oil, a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup and a dash of soy sauce in a cup, whisk and pour a little on top of the tofu, saving the rest to baste with during cooking.

Finally, bake it for about 30 mins at 180C. It should be golden but not burnt (although the glaze may look like burnt sugar in the pan if you don't baste regularly. If it does, just soak the pan for a few minutes during clean up and it should just come right off). Let it sit for a good ten minutes, then using two fish slices and a lot of concentration, transfer onto a serving dish. Decorate with a spring of rosemary and serve in slices (like roast chicken) with lots of roast veg. It is great hot or cold, but will cut more neatly when cold.


I promise it is much quicker than it sounds and, despite the presence of tofu, it is deeeeliicious.

Kiwi, that sounds amazing!

We have all sorts of stuff as our roast, but a Quorn roast is lovely, or the chicken style fillets cooked in a nice gravy. If we don't want any soya protein we really roughly (nice big wedges) chop up two peppers, three courgettes, a couple of sweet potatoes, and whole garlic cloves...cover in some oil and italian seasoning and bake in the oven until golden brown and gorgeous.

Meat is definitely not an important part of a roast dinner...of course, a veggie would say that! :P

oh cheers!

And I definitely want to try your one - peppers, goood. courgette, good. garlic - GOOOD.

The dream is with home grown courgettes of course