Full of festive flavours and seasonal ingredients, my vegan Christmas nut roast will make a satisfying and filling centrepiece for your roast dinner.
My vegan Christmas nut roast is packed with tonnes of festive flavours and textures. The combination of fresh herbs, seasonal vegetables, gorgeous mixed nuts, black beans, and hints of warm spice and cranberry make each bite delightful.
It’s very filling, hearty and alongside my balsamic red wine onion gravy, it really earns its spot in the centre of your dinner table.
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Top tips for making the best vegan Christmas nut roast:
Kitchen tools:
If you haven’t already got one, get yourself a food processor. It is one of the handiest kitchen tools and makes cooking so much more efficient and straight forward.
It’s the main piece of equipment I have used to make my nut roast as it blitzes up ingredients in a matter of seconds.
Measuring spoons are also very helpful for accuracy in cooking. Plus a good quality non-stick frying pan is great for cooking on the hob.
Use a metal loaf tin:
You can get silicone loaf tins and metal loaf tins. Both have their pros and cons.
Silicone is flexible and pretty much non-stick, BUT there is lower heat conduction which interferes with how well the food cooks.
In comparison, metal loaf tins are long-lasting and conduct heat really well for obvious reasons. Therefore, they’ll give better results. However, they are more prone to sticking, so it’s always best to line/grease them!
Whether you use silicone or metal, it depends on the recipe you’re making. For this recipe, I would advise using a metal tin lined with non-stick baking parchment.
If you only have a silicone loaf tin, you may find that the nut roast needs additional cooking time to crisp up around all the edges. If that’s the case, turn it out onto a baking tray and stick it under the grill for 10 minutes to crisp up around the edges.
Use non-stick baking parchment (NOT greaseproof):
An easy mistake to make – trust me, I’ve been there!
They aren’t the same, and it’s good to know the difference so you can choose the right one for cooking.
Non-stick baking parchment has a silicone coating which prevents food from sticking to tins and the paper itself.
In contrast, the greaseproof paper doesn’t have the silicone lining, but as the name suggests, it’s grease-resistant and is often used to line tins. However, you must grease it on both sides; otherwise, it will stick to bakeware and food!
For this recipe, make sure you are using non-stick baking parchment.
How to serve a vegan Christmas nut roast?
You can serve the nut roast hot or cold, but it’s best served hot and drizzled with my balsamic red wine onion gravy!
It has so much flavour so goes perfectly with all the roast dinner trimmings – maple roasted parsnips, roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables, Yorkshire pudding etc.
How to store a vegan Christmas nut roast?
The great thing about this recipe is that you can make it a few days ahead of Christmas, which gives you more time to have fun on Christmas day.
If you pre-make it, leave it to cool before wrapping it in foil and keeping it in an airtight container in the fridge. Then on Christmas day, simply re-heat it in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180C until piping hot
Using wine in cooking:
An essential step to making my balsamic red wine onion gravy is, of course, the addition of red wine! Red and white wines add gorgeous depths of flavours in dishes – spaghetti bolognese is well-know for it. Where red creates a rich and robust flavour, white imparts a fruity flavour.
After adding red wine to my gravy, I allow it to reduce on low, medium heat. That way, enough time is left for flavours to develop.
If you’re reading this thinking, “I hate red wine”, then don’t worry at all. It won’t taste like red wine – the alcohol evaporates, leaving behind the sweeter flavours.
If you love it, don’t forget to pour yourself a glass while you’re cooking 😉
Is wine vegan?
Bear in mind that not all wine is vegan. Isinglass is a form of gelatine derived from fish bladders, and it’s used in the filtering process of most wine production. However, there’s no real difference in taste and, rest assured many supermarkets stock vegan wines nowadays. Just check the label. The following UK supermarkets are well-praised for their stocks of vegan wine:
- Sainsbury’s
- The Co-op
- Aldi
- Tesco
- Lidl
I hope you enjoy this Christmas salad recipe. I’d love it if you could leave me some feedback and a cheeky follow on social.
If you’re already planning your vegan Christmas or need some ideas for a vegan roast dinner, then check out these recipes of mine:
- Beet Bruschetta with Sweet Zest & Peppery Infusions
- ‘MEATY’ Vegan Mushroom Wellington
- Tasty Roasted Veg: Learn How to Make Gorgeous Roasties and Maple Parsnips
- Colourful & Festive Christmas Salad Starter with Maple Tahini Dressing
Much love, G x
Vegan Christmas Nut Roast with Tasty Balsamic Red Wine Onion Gravy
Full of festive flavours and seasonal ingredients, my vegan Christmas nut roast will make a satisfying and filling centrepiece for your roast dinner.
Ingredients
For The Nut Roast:
- 80g mushrooms
- 50g chestnuts
- 200g mixed nuts
- 70g cashew and cranberry mix (mostly cranberry)
- 1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
- 3 small shallots (130g)
- Half a leek (100g)
- 3-4 garlic cloves
- ¼ tsp Mixed spice
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- fresh sprigs of rosemary
- 1 medium carrot, washed and grated
- 1 large Maris Piper potato, peeled and grated
- Olive oil
- 1 low-salt vegetable stock cube
- Sea salt
- Black pepper
For the Balsamic Red Wine Onion Gravy:
- 1 low-salt vegetable stock cube (+ 700ml boiling water)
- 1 medium red onion, finely sliced
- A large pinch of finely chopped fresh rosemary and sage
- Pinch of dried thyme
- 1 tbsp vegetable/olive oil
- 1 tbsp vegan butter
- 1 tbsp light brown sugar
- 200ml red wine
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
Instructions
For the nut roast:
- In a food processor, blitz up your mushrooms and chestnuts then transfer to a bowl. Do the same for your mixed nuts, cashews and cranberries.
- Next, blitz the black beans until they’re roughly chopped and place to one side.
Then roughly chop your shallot, leek and garlic and blitz these together with some fresh rosemary, mixed spice and dried thyme. - Grate one medium carrot and one large Maris piper potato. Place both in a bowl and combine well.
- Next, you need to line your tin with non-stick baking parchment. Not greaseproof otherwise it will stick. At this point, you also need to pre-heat your oven to 180C.
- Fry off your leek, shallot and garlic mix in a little olive oil on medium heat, until softened. Crumble in one vegetable stock cube and mix well. Then add your black beans and cook for a minute or two.
- Season with a generous grinding of sea salt and black pepper. Then mix in your carrot and potato and cook for a further few minutes, before finally adding your mixed nuts, cashew, cranberry, chestnuts and mushrooms.
- Cook all these ingredients together for another 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Spoon the nut roast mix into your loaf tin, pressing down each layer with the back of your spoon to compact the mixture into all four corners. Then bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Use it's cooking time to make your gravy.
- If you use a silicone loaf mould, you will need to remove the paper and turn it our onto a baking tray and place it under a medium-hot grill for 10 minutes to crisp up the exterior.
- When ready, slice your nut roast with a sharp segregated knife and drizzle over tasty gravy!
For the gravy:
- While the nut roast is cooking, use that time to prepare your gravy.
- Dissolve one vegetable stock in 800ml of boiling water and slice up one red onion.
Fry off the red onion in a drizzle of olive oil, a small knob of vegan butter and brown sugar for five minutes until soft and caramelised. - Sprinkle in fresh sage, rosemary and a pinch of dried thyme and stir in 200ml of vegan red wine. Add two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, one tablespoon of soy sauce and reduce by half on a low, medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Finally, add the stock and leave to simmer on a low, medium heat until reduced by half and you’re left with a rich, dark and flavoursome gravy.
