Culpeper House

Here Lives A Man with a Pan

Main Course

Nut and spinach roast with wild mushroom gravy

Toby

INGREDIENTS

For Nut Roast

  • 200 g fresh spinach leaves
  • 250g unsalted mixed nuts 
  • 5g of unsalted cashew nuts
  • 1/2 onion, finely chopped1
  • carrot, grated 
  • 200g tinned tomatoes, drained and chopped
  • 50g sundried tomatoes in olive oil, rouhly chopped
  • free-range egg, beaten 
  • 100g Gruyère cheese, finely rated 
  • 1/2 tsp.dried sage
  • 1/2 tsp. finely chopped fresh mint
  • 1 1/2 tbsp freshly chopped curly parsley1 
  • garlic clove, crushed
  • 1tsp vegetable stock concentrate
  • sea salt flakes
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • knob of butter for greasing tin

For Wild Mushroom Gravy

  • knob of butter
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 banana (long) shallot, finely diced
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 250 g wild mushrooms
  • 300 ml vegetable stock
  • 2 tbsp. soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp. plain flour
  • 1 tbsp. butter
  • sea salt and pepper to season

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Blanch the spinach in boiling water, then drain it well and squeeze out all the water. Chop the spinach finely and set aside.
  2. Put the mixed nuts and cashews in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped, but take care not to reduce them to powder.
  3. Tip the nuts into a large mixing bowl and add the onion, carrot, tinned and sundried tomatoes, egg, cheese, sage, mint, parsley, spinach, garlic, stock and seasoning, then mix everything together well.
  4. Grease a loaf tin with butter and pour in the mixture. Cut a piece of greaseproof paper to fit the loaf tin, grease it and lay it over the top to stop it burning. Bake in the preheated oven for about an hour until the nut roast is cooked through. Turn it out onto a plate for slicing.

    While the nut roast is cooking, make the mushroom gravy.
  5. Gently heat the oil and knob of butter in a medium pan, then add the diced shallot. Sweat for five minutes or until transparent. Add the garlic and sweat for 1o minutes.
  6. Add the mushrooms and cook gently for a further five minutes.
  7. Add the stock and soy sauce, then season to taste and simmer with the lid on the pan for 10 minutes.
  8. Mix the tablespoon of flour into the tablespoon of butter and stir into the gravy to thicken it. Serve piping hot with the nut roast.