Thursday 13 December 2012

Carrot & Cashew Nut Roast

Ingredients:
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
1 glug of sunflower or vegetable oil
450g carrots
225g cashew nuts
100g bread (or breadcrumbs)
1 tbsp light tahini
1.5 tsps caraway seeds
1tsp marmite "yeast extract"
Juice from half a lemon
Water
Salt
Pepper


You’ll want your oven preheated to 180oC. Apparently that’s equal to something called gas mark 4. I usually do this when the onions are on, but you can do it when is best for your oven.
  • Peel and cut the carrots into chunks, about thumb length is fine, just to make it faster to cook them. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and simmer the carrots for about 8 minutes or until you can press a knife through them with little resistance.
  • While the carrots cook, ground* the cashew nuts to crumbs and crumble* your bread to breadcrumbs and set them aside.
  • Peel and chop* the onion, chop a tiny bit off the flat end of the garlic clove and peel off the skin, then crush it.
  • Fry the onion and the garlic in the oil until soft.
  • The carrots should be done by this point, keep 65ml of the water then drain the rest. Mash* the carrot chunks.
  • Now get a big mixing bowl and throw in the carrot, garlic, onion, breadcrumbs, water and cashews you have already prepared along with the caraway seeds, tahini, marmite and lemon. Add salt and pepper as you like and stir well.
  • Get a loaf tin, (ideally 900g but whatever looks like it’ll fit will do) line the bottom with just a bit more baking paper than a snug fit, so you’ve got some “handles” to grab it out with. Grease the whole inside of this tin.
  • Cover it with foil (no one ever told me there was such thing as a shiny side, it might be obvious but I’m telling you) shiny side in. Cook for one hour.
  • Take off the foil and cook for a further 10 minutes.

(Note: this recipe is made far easier by using a food processor, if you don’t have one available it is still possible. It’s just a bit more work! I’ll add a * to the parts I just shove in the processor.)