The Christmas Centrepiece That Does Not Crumble

I will tell you a secret about nut roast. Most people get it wrong, and they get it wrong in the same way every year. The thing comes out of the oven dry, pale and sad, and when you cut it the slice falls apart on the plate like wet sand. Then everybody at the table says “oh, it’s lovely” in that quiet voice that means it is not. I have been served that nut roast at an office Christmas lunch, and I went home and ate bread and butter.

Back home in Guadeloupe, Christmas is not a vegetarian occasion. I will be honest with you. It is the ham, glazed dark with brown sugar and rum, the boudin my mother made in the yard, pois d’Angole with rice, and a bottle of shrubb that one of my uncles had been steeping since October. In December the whole street sings. People go from house to house for chanté Nwel, the carols, and every house has a pot on and something to eat. Nobody at that table was asking for a nut roast.

But I have cooked in England for a long time now, and at an English Christmas there is always someone who does not eat meat. A cousin’s girlfriend. A teenager who decided in September. A friend who has been vegan for ten years and is very polite about it. For years I watched them get the dry brick while everyone else got the bird, and it annoyed me, because that is not generous cooking. So I made my own nut roast recipe, the way I would make anything: with onion, with a little chilli, with enough moisture that the slice holds together and still tastes of something.

The trick is in the binding. Red lentils cooked soft, mushrooms cooked until they give up their water, and a good spoonful of my Caribbean Sauce Creole, which is mostly slow-cooked onion with a gentle green chilli warmth. It keeps the loaf moist from the inside and it seasons the whole thing without a cupboard of jars. Then a passion fruit glaze on top for the last ten minutes, so it comes out of the oven shining like a ham. Let me show you.

Recipe at a glance

• Cuisine: Caribbean fusion (a British Christmas dish, cooked the Guadeloupe way)
• Prep: 25 minutes • Cook: 65 minutes • Total: 90 minutes
• Serves: 6
• Featured sauce: Caribbean Sauce Creole
• Heat level: 5/10, a warm hum, not a burn
• Diet: Vegan, vegetarian, gluten free (with gluten free breadcrumbs), dairy free

What you’ll need

This feeds six as a centrepiece, or eight if it sits next to a bird and everybody takes a slice. You want a mix of nuts, not just one: cashews go creamy and soft, walnuts stay a little bitter and crunchy, and a few hazelnuts taste of Christmas. Buy them raw if you can and toast them yourself. The red lentils are not optional. They are what holds everything together without an egg.

For the loaf:

• 150g raw cashew nuts
• 100g walnut halves
• 50g blanched hazelnuts
• 120g dried red lentils, rinsed
• 350ml water, for the lentils
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 stick celery, finely chopped
• 1 large carrot, coarsely grated
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 250g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
• 4 spring onions, finely sliced
• 5 tbsp Caribbean Sauce Creole
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 5 tbsp water (this is your egg)
• 100g gluten free breadcrumbs
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• A good grating of nutmeg
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

For the glaze:

• 3 tbsp Exotic Caribbean Sauce
• 1 tbsp maple syrup

You also need a 900g (2lb) loaf tin, lined with baking parchment so it hangs over the long sides. Those flaps are your handles for lifting the loaf out.

How I make it

1. Toast the nuts. Put the cashews, walnuts and hazelnuts on a tray in the oven at 180°C (160°C fan) for 8 minutes. They should smell warm and look a shade darker, nothing more. Tip them into a bowl to cool, and leave the oven on.

2. Cook the lentils. Put the lentils and 350ml water in a small pan. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until they have collapsed into a thick orange porridge and the water has gone. You want them soft and dry, not soupy. If there is water left, keep cooking. This is the step that stops your nut roast falling apart later.

3. Start the base. While the lentils cook, warm the oil in a wide frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, celery and carrot with a pinch of salt and cook for 8 minutes, stirring, until soft and sweet. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.

4. Cook the mushrooms properly. Add the chopped mushrooms to the pan and turn the heat up. They will release a lot of water. Keep cooking, stirring, for about 8 to 10 minutes until that water has gone and the pan is almost dry again. Do not rush this part. Wet mushrooms make a wet loaf.

5. Season the pan. Stir in the thyme, allspice, nutmeg and spring onions, then the Caribbean Sauce Creole. Let it bubble for 2 minutes so the sauce coats everything. Take the pan off the heat.

6. Chop the nuts. Put two thirds of the cooled nuts in a food processor and pulse until they look like coarse sand with some small pieces. Chop the remaining third roughly by hand with a knife. The fine nuts bind, the rough nuts give you something to bite.

7. Bring it together. In a large bowl, mix the lentils, the mushroom mixture, all the nuts, the breadcrumbs, the flaxseed and water, the lime zest, salt and pepper. Mix with your hands. It should hold together when you squeeze a handful. Taste it now, before it goes in the oven, and add salt if it needs it.

8. Pack the tin. Spoon the mixture into the lined loaf tin and press it down firmly with the back of a spoon, especially in the corners. Firm pressing is what gives you a clean slice. Smooth the top.

9. Bake covered. Cover the tin with foil and bake at 180°C (160°C fan) for 35 minutes.

10. Glaze and finish. Mix the Exotic Caribbean Sauce with the maple syrup. Take the foil off, brush half the glaze over the top and bake uncovered for 10 minutes. Brush on the rest and bake for a final 10 minutes, until the top is set, glossy and golden at the edges.

11. Rest it. This is the part nobody does. Leave the loaf in the tin for 15 minutes. It firms up as it cools. Then lift it out by the parchment, peel the paper away and slice with a serrated knife.

The role of Caribbean Sauce Creole in this dish

A nut roast needs an onion base. Every good one does. Normally that means an hour of cooking onions down until they are sweet and soft and almost a paste. My Caribbean Sauce Creole is exactly that, done already: it is 68 percent onion, cooked slowly, with a little green chilli and vinegar to keep it bright. So when you stir five spoonfuls through the mushrooms, you are adding an onion base that has had far more time than you have on Christmas morning.

It does two other jobs. It carries moisture into the middle of the loaf, which is where nut roasts dry out, and it brings a warmth that builds slowly as you eat rather than hitting you in the face. The chilli is gentle. Children eat this. If your table wants more heat, pass my Caribbean Hot Sauce separately and let people decide.

Tips from my kitchen

• Dry lentils, dry mushrooms. Nine times out of ten a crumbly nut roast is a wet nut roast that could not set. Cook the lentils until the water is gone and cook the mushrooms until the pan is dry. If the mixture looks loose when you press it, add another handful of breadcrumbs.
• Make it the day before. This nut roast is better on day two. Bake it, cool it completely, wrap it in the tin and keep it in the fridge. On the day, slice it cold (cold slices never crumble), lay the slices on a tray, cover with foil and warm at 160°C (140°C fan) for 20 minutes. Brush with a little more Exotic Caribbean Sauce before serving.
• Breadcrumbs. I use gluten free breadcrumbs so the loaf suits everyone at the table. If nobody at yours needs that, ordinary dried breadcrumbs work the same way.
• Toast the nuts, always. Raw nuts taste of nothing. Eight minutes in the oven and the whole loaf changes.
• Do not skip the rest. Fifteen minutes in the tin. Cut it straight from the oven and it will fall apart no matter what you did before.
• If you have meat eaters too, cook this next to my Caribbean roast duck. Both are glazed, both are sticky, and nobody at the table feels like the afterthought.

What to serve it with

At Christmas, give it the full treatment. My Caribbean red cabbage, braised with apple and passion fruit, is the side I would put next to it first: the colour alone makes the plate. Then honey roast parsnips, crisp roast potatoes cooked in oil, and a jug of good vegetable gravy. A spoon of cranberry sauce on the side does with a nut roast what it does with turkey.

Put a jar of Exotic Caribbean Sauce on the table too. It is fruity and gentle and it is the glaze on top, so another spoonful on the plate makes sense.

Outside of December, thick slices with garlicky greens and a sharp lime salad, and the cold leftovers in a sandwich the next day.

If you are curious how we actually eat at Christmas back home, I wrote about it here: Christmas in the Caribbean. It is a long way from a nut roast, but the spirit is the same. Everybody eats well, and nobody is left out.

FAQ

Why does my nut roast fall apart?

Too much water and not enough rest. The lentils must be cooked until they are thick and dry, the mushrooms must be cooked until their liquid has gone, and the mixture must be pressed firmly into the tin. Then leave it in the tin for 15 minutes after baking. If you follow those four things, it slices cleanly. If your mixture still looks wet before baking, add a handful more breadcrumbs.

How long do you cook a nut roast in the oven?

Mine takes 55 minutes at 180°C (160°C fan) in a 900g loaf tin: 35 minutes covered with foil, then 20 minutes uncovered while you glaze it. It is done when the top is set and glossy and the sides have pulled slightly away from the tin. A smaller tin needs a little longer, a shallow dish a little less.

Can you make nut roast in advance and freeze it?

Yes to both. Bake it, cool it completely and keep it in the fridge for up to three days, then slice cold and reheat the slices covered at 160°C (140°C fan) for 20 minutes. To freeze, wrap the whole cooled loaf well and freeze for up to two months. Defrost it in the fridge overnight and reheat the same way. I would brush on fresh glaze after reheating, not before freezing.

Is this nut roast gluten free and vegan?

It is vegan as written: the flaxseed replaces the egg and there is no cheese or butter. It is gluten free if you use gluten free breadcrumbs, which is what I list. All six of my sauces are gluten free, so the Sauce Creole and the Exotic Caribbean Sauce are no problem. For allergens, this dish contains tree nuts (cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts) and celery, and the Exotic Caribbean Sauce and Sauce Creole contain vinegar, so check with anyone at your table who needs to know.

What do you serve with nut roast at Christmas?

Everything you would serve with the turkey. Roast potatoes, parsnips, braised red cabbage, greens, cranberry sauce and a good gravy. The nut roast is rich and savoury, so it wants something sharp and something sweet next to it. That is why my red cabbage and a fruity glaze work so well with it.

Final word from me

I did not grow up with nut roast, and I will not pretend I did. But I grew up at a table where everybody ate well and the cook made sure of it, and that is the only tradition that matters to me. Make this for the one person at your Christmas who usually gets the sad plate. Make it the day before, slice it cold, warm it through, and watch the meat eaters reach for a piece too. Then tell me how it went.

JP