DETAILS
- Serves: 8-10
- Prep: 20 mins
- Bake: 1 hour 10 mins
INGREDIENTS
- 100g green lentils
- 500ml vegetable stock, or water with 1 tsp vegetable bouillon
- 2 bay leaves
- 50g sunflower seeds
- 50g pumpkin seeds
- 50g sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 large red onion, finely sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 carrots, grated (200g)
- 2 parsnips, grated (200g)
- 100g oatmeal or porridge oats, ground to a coarse flour
- 100g cashews, chopped
- 50g hazelnuts, roughly halved
- 2 tbsp tamari
- 15g fresh parsley, chopped
- lemon juice
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Line a 900g loaf tin with baking parchment.
- Wash the lentils, put them in a small saucepan with the stock and bay leaves, bring to the boil and simmer until tender. Drain, remove the bay leaves and set aside.
- Mix the sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds together on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 5–8 minutes. Toast them until they just begin to colour, but make sure they don’t burn.
- In a large frying pan, heat the sunflower oil and fry the onion until translucent. Add the garlic, spices and tomato purée and fry for a minute until fragrant. Add the grated carrot and parsnip and fry for 5 minutes.
- Remove from the heat, stir in the cooked lentils, oatmeal, cashews, hazelnuts, toasted seeds, tamari and parsley. Add lemon juice and salt and black pepper, to taste. Spoon into the lined tin, press down firmly and cover the top with baking parchment. Bake in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes.
- Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a serving dish and slicing. Serve with plenty of festive veggies and your favourite gravy.
- Cook’s tip Cook the nut roast completely and allow to cool before freezing. Defrost for 24 hours, then wrap in foil and reheat at the same temperature for 35–40 minutes.
Recipe created by Rachel Demuth. Photography by Rob Wicks, www.eatpictures.com