British style vegetarian Sunday roast

There is a tradition in this country for an opulent Sunday meal, called the Sunday roast. Whether it's enjoyed at home with relatives, in pubs or restaurants, it's an important tradition for the British. Even though the concept has strong connotations with a meaty meal, vegetarians can make a fabulous roast dinner as well and that's what I'm trying to present to you here today.

Nut roast

A vegetarian roast dinner needs a centrepiece substituting the meat products, and I decided to make a nut roast again. This one differs slightly from my Christmas nut roast recipe as this time I used pearled spelt as one component. 

1dl pearled spelt

1tsp vegetable stock powder

240g peeled and cooked chestnuts

1-2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

1 carrot

25g dried porcini mushrooms

2tbsp olive oil

100g Red Leicester cheese

2tbsp breadcrumbs

Cook the spelt in water with added vegetable stock powder until tender. This takes about 15 minutes. In the meanwhile soak the crushed porcini mushrooms for about 10 minutes.

Chop the shallots, garlic and carrot finely and fry them lightly in olive oil. I grated the carrot to have it extra fine. Drain the porcini, but save the soaking water, and add the mushrooms to the pan.

When the spelt has cooked add it to the pan as well and some of the mushroom soaking water as well.

Once you are happy that all the components have cooked nicely, add the chestnuts. Press them little between your fingers and add to the mix. Then also add the grated cheese and the breadcrumbs and divide the mixture into small greased ramekins.

Bake them for about 40 minutes at 180C.

Onion gravy

Other important components to a roast dinner are steamed or roasted vegetables and potatoes, and I moistened them with my onion gravy, recipe is here. Reserve enough time for making the gravy as the shallots need to caramelise a while. You can always reheat the gravy, if you make it earlier.

Yorkshire puddings

For the first time I'm making Yorkshire puddings, and used this basic recipe for them. Finnish oven pancakes are very similar to the Yorkshire puddings, but normally bigger and they would only be served as a dessert.

140g flour

4 eggs

200ml milk

Vegetable oil for greasing

Whisk the ingredients together and bake in a greased muffin tin at 200C for about 25 minutes. They will nicely puff up, so only fill the holes of the tin half full.

On the side I served my cranberry jelly. I would recommend making this on the previous day as it needs several hours for setting. You'll find the full recipe through the link.

 

Vegetables

Choose any of your favourite vegetables to be served. These are my chosen ones for this meal.

230g purple sprouting broccoli spears

1 cup frozen peas

150g baby topped carrots

1 parsnip

4 garlic cloves

500g small potatoes

2tbsp vegetable oil

½tsp salt

1tsp thyme

I steamed the broccoli spears and heated the frozen peas in a pan, but the other vegetables were roasted.

Peel and chop the parsnip into thin sticks. If you are using baby carrots, they can be left as they are, otherwise chop them in the same fashion as the parsnips. Peel and crush the garlic. The potatoes just need a quick wash, leave the peels on.

Place the vegetables in a roasting tin and brush them with vegetable oil. Sprinkle salt and thyme on them and roast in the oven for about 40 minutes until all the vegetables are nicely done.

Timing is key when putting a Sunday roast together. You would want all the components to be ready at the same time, so think carefully about the timings when you have to cook which part. Some of them can be prepared on the previous day. Remember that you can get really creative with this and choose only your favourite vegetables, and as the main piece either a nut roast, vegetarian Schnitzel, veggie sausages or anything nice you can think of.

Have a tasty Sunday all!

Your VegHog