Make your roast dinner something special with this Vegan Butternut Squash Nut Roast. It's perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or just because! Get the recipe below.
Vegan roast dinners
The humble nut roast is a classic dish to serve up as part of a vegan roast dinner. It predates all of the "fancy" mock-meat options and is full of wholefoods making it perfect for anyone following a wholefoods plant based diet.
Packed with protein, fibre, and flavour, nut roasts are not only a fantastic meat-free alternative but also a crowd pleaser for both vegetarians and vegans. You might even find your meat eating friends and family love it too!
Today I'm sharing one of my favourite nut roast recipes. It's made with diced butternut squash in the nut roast itself and topped with thin slices to make it look prettier. Let's be honest...nut roasts aren't the prettiest of dishes so the butternut squash certainly helps.
Although nut roasts may feel a little bit old fashioned I think this one is extra special.
What's in a Vegan Butternut Quash Nut Roast?
Nut roasts are a savoury loaf-style dish primarily made from nuts, grains, and vegetables, bound together with breadcrumbs.
This recipe uses:
- Onion;
- Butternut squash;
- Celery;
- Green lentils;
- Breadcrumbs;
- Sage;
- Thyme;
- Rosemary;
- Chestnuts;
- Walnuts; and
- Vegan butter
The result is something earthy with a hint of sweetness from the butternut squash and the chestnuts. It's fragrant and herby thanks to the blend of sage, thyme and rosemary. And, it has a wonderful texture thanks to the lentils, breadcrumbs, chestnuts and walnuts.
Top tips for making a nut roast
To make a nut roast there is a lot of prep work required. Everything needs to be finely diced to get the perfect texture.
But, there's a shortcut to all of that hard work. The humble blender or food processor. For this recipe I recommend using the pulse setting on a large food processor or blender to get that finely chopped texture. It's such a good kitchen hack!
Of course if you don't have a blender of food processor then you can still make this by hand just factor that in as you will need to leave yourself a lot longer to make it.
Variations
One of the best things about nut roasts is how easy they are to customise based on whatever you've got in your fridge. Here are some popular swaps you might want to make:
- Nuts: I use a combination of chestnuts and walnuts but you could use almonds, cashews, pecans, and even hazelnuts.
- Grains: I use a mix of lentils and breadcrumbs which form the base of this nut roast and help bring it all together. You could use quinoa or even brown rice.
- Vegetables: Carrots are another great addition to this recipe, as are parsnips and peppers.
- Herbs and Spices: Sage, thyme, rosemary, and garlic are used in this recipe. To make it more festive you could add in a little bit of mace or nutmeg.
Serving suggestions
These dishes go perfectly with this Vegan Butternut Squash Nut Roast creating the ultimate vegan roast dinner:
You can find even more in my Ultimate Christmas Roast Dinner post.
The recipe
Vegan Butternut Squash Nut Roast
Equipment
- 1 Loaf tin
Ingredients
- 1 small butternut squash
- 1 large large white onion
- 125 grams celery
- 200 grams chestnut mushrooms
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 100 grams green lentils tinned
- 2 slices white bread
- 100 g roasted chestnuts
- 100 g walnuts
- 4 sprigs thyme
- 4 sprigs rosemary
- 3 leaves sage
- salt and pepper to taste
- 50 grams vegan butter melted
Instructions
- Begin by lining a loaf tin with grease proof paper and place to one side.
- Peel the butternut squash and cut 6 thin circles from the neck of the squash.
- Lay the butternut squash circles in the bottom of the loaf tin, overlapping slightly.
- Next, roughly chop the celery, remaining butternut squash and onion.
- Add this to the food processor/blender and pulse until you've achieved a roughly diced texture..
- Place the chopped celery, carrot and onion into a pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil and a big pinch of salt and cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes or until soft.
- Next dice the mushrooms (again using the pulse setting of your food processor/blender) and add to the pan along with the minced garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Add the lentils to the pan and simmer on a low heat until all of the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated.
- Set the pan to one side and allow to cool completely.
- Next, place the white bread into the food processor / blender. Turn it on a low, constant speed and blend until breadcrumbs have formed. Place the breadcrumbs into a bowl.
- Add the chestnuts, walnuts and herbs to the food processor / blender and pulse until you've achieved a coarse, chopped texture.
- Add these to the breadcrumbs.
- Stir the breadcrumb mix into the vegetables in the sauce pan until fully combined. Add the melted butter to bind and season to taste.
- Spread the nut roast mixture over the butternut squash circles and smooth out until it is level.
- Cover the tin with foil and bake in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes.
- Once the 30 minutes is up, remove the foil from the nut roast and heat uncovered for 15 minutes or until the loaf feels firm to the touch.
- Remove the nut roast from the pan by flipping it out onto a serving dish and removing the grease proof paper.
Nutrition
More roast dinner mains
Enjoy!
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