Our Nut Roast is a vegan alternative to the traditional roast. This nut loaf is packed full of nuts, seeds, dried and fresh mushrooms and herbs. Our Veggie Loaf is a great recipe to make for special days such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter or your regular Sunday Roast.
What is a Nut Roast or Nut Loaf?
Traditionally, roast dinners are served with a hearty meatloaf as a centrepiece. Nut Roast or Nut Loaf combines ground nuts and seeds with mushrooms, herbs, spices, sometimes lentils or eggs, breadcrumbs and other ingredients to get the perfect texture and taste. This mixture is shaped using a loaf baking pan and baked in the oven.
This Famous Nut Roast is Luca's grandparent's recipe that is made for special occasions and we just love it so much that it makes us really happy to finally get it on the blog.
Our Vegan Nut Roast makes a great addition to your Holiday season whether is Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner or Easter meal. It's a hearty and delicious meal that we enjoy cooking together with some festive veggies, vegan gravy and some pan-fried green beans. We promise you that any meat-eaters around the table won't be missing the meat, this is such a great alternative to your traditional roast dinner.
How to make the best Nut Roast
Ingredients
These are the ingredients listed in the recipe card. We added some alternatives or variations for you to be able to cook this delicious vegan nut roast recipe using what you have on hand.
Dried Mushrooms. Broken into small pieces and rehydrated, dried mushrooms will give your nut roast a deeper and richer flavour. We make a stock out of the dried mushrooms that will be used in our nut roast as well. Porcini-dried mushrooms are the ones we use, shiitake or other mushrooms will work perfectly too. If you are not adding dried mushrooms, you will need to add some vegetable broth (200ml)
Fresh Mushrooms. They are the main ingredient for our nut roast. Roughly chopped mushrooms will give the nut roast the right consistency and taste. We use white button mushrooms but chestnut mushrooms or cremini mushrooms can be used too.
Nuts and seeds. The nut mixture for our nut roast is walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews and almonds. We ground the nuts using a food processor. We prefer larger pieces, but you can ground the nuts finer. You can add as well seeds such as sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds.
Bread crumbs. You can use store-bought or homemade bread crumbs. Simply add dried bread (leftover bread) into a food processor and pulse a few times until you have fine bread crumbs.
Rosemary. Fresh Rosemary is such a nice herb to use during autumn and winter. It's really flavourful, we love adding it to our recipes. You can add other fresh herbs such as basil, oregano, or sage.
Soy sauce. Our nut roast contains a little bit of dark soy sauce to pack in some extra flavour.
Onion and garlic. As in most of our dishes, we use white or red onion and garlic cloves to start the base of this dish.
Yeast Extract. Marmite or yeast extract is a savoury spread widely used in the UK. My husband loves having it on toast so we always have a jar around. Adding a teaspoon of marmite gives the nut roast a concentrated dose of umami flavour. If you are not in the UK, you can buy it online, or substitute it for miso or tomato paste.
Step-by-Step Method
To make the nut roast recipe you will need a loaf pan mould, the ingredients listed above and a food processor.
- Prepare the mushroom stock by breaking the dried mushrooms into small pieces and soaking them in boiling water.
- Get the dry ingredients ready. In a food processor, add the nuts and ground them by pulsing until they have the desired consistency and set aside. If you are making homemade bread crumbs, add the bread to the food processor and pulse until you have fine bread crumbs.
- Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan to medium heat and add finely chopped onion and garlic. Fry until translucent and add roughly chopped mushrooms and rosemary. Sauté for a couple of minutes and turn the heat off.
- Add the ground nuts and bread crumbs and mix them together. Season with salt and black pepper.
- Pour the soy sauce and add the dried mushrooms stock, combine all the ingredients until a dough is formed, and adjust with salt and pepper.
- Grease the loaf pan with oil or vegan butter or use parchment paper. Spoon evenly into a loaf pan or baking tray. You can use the back of a spoon to help shape the loaf. Bake in a preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes at 200C or until the top is browned.
Serving Suggestions
Our Vegan Roast is an alternative main dish to the traditional roast that you can prepare for a special occasion.
Our favourite way to serve it is with roasted root vegetables, homemade Yorkshire puddings, roasted garlic, this delicious German Red Cabbage, and delicious vegan gravy. You can serve the Nut Roast with some potato or sweet potato mash.
For Christmas dinner or a big holiday dinner, we like making the cranberry sauce to go with the vegan nut loaf. It can be served as well with our Potato Wedges, potato puree, steamed vegetables or a nice green leafy salad like our delicious Winter Salad.
If you are looking for a dessert to serve after the nut roast, check out our Apple Crumble, easy to make and uses the oven which should already be hot from making the nut roast!
Variations for our Vegan Nut Roast
- Make it gluten-free. Our Vegan Nut Roast recipe can easily be adapted to make it gluten-free. In fact, most of the time is the way we make it so the whole family can enjoy it. Simply substitute the regular bread crumbs for gluten-free bread crumbs. It might be a bit difficult to find gluten-free breadcrumbs, but we normally put some gluten-free bread slices from the freezer and ground them using a food processor. Substitute the soy sauce for tamari (gluten-free soy sauce). You should be able to find tamari in supermarkets but you can get it online as well. Make sure you are using gluten-free gravy if you are serving it with a gravy sauce.
- Change the nuts and seeds you are using. Our recipe is made with walnuts, cashews, brazil nuts, and almonds. You can use other nuts such as pistachios, peanuts, macadamia nuts, or pine nuts and for seeds, we recommend trying sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
- Make it vegetarian. You can add two eggs to your nut roast when mixing all the ingredients before adding them to the loaf pan. Adding eggs may help keep the loaf together when serving it. Alternatively, you could add chia eggs which are made by hydrating chia seeds in water.
- Add dried fruits. Adding dried fruits such as raisins or cranberries to your nut roast makes for a great addition. It adds sweetness to your nut roast.
- Add lentils. You can add cooked lentils (brown or red) to this Nut Roast to add more protein. If you want to include this pulse, we recommend reducing the number of mushrooms.
FAQ and Tips
- What can I use instead of Marmite? You can use miso paste, tomato paste, or vegemite (the Australian version) instead of Marmite. Marmite or yeast extract is a savoury spread widely used in the UK but a bit difficult to find if you are in other countries.
- Can I substitute the mushrooms in this recipe? Our Vegan Nut Roast contains fresh and dried mushrooms. The fresh mushrooms help the nut roast to get a perfect consistency and the dry mushrooms provide a unique umami flavor. If you are vegetarian, you could add egg or flax eggs for a vegan option. Another great option is to add brown lentils or red lentils. If you want to skip the dry mushrooms as well, we recommend adding some vegetable stock mixed with 200ml water.
- To help the Nut Roast stick together you should wait at least 20 minutes before you serve the Nut Roast once is been baked.
Vegan Nut Roast
Ingredients
- ½ cup dried porcini mushrooms
- 200 ml water
- 2 cups or 280 g mixed nuts walnut, cashews ,brasil nuts and almonds
- 1 ½ cup or 80 g bread crumbs
- 1 onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 250 g chestnut mushrooms
- Few springs of rosemary
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon yeast extract you can substitute for miso paste
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Prepare the mushroom stock by breaking the dried porcini mushrooms into small pieces and soaking them in 200 ml of boiling water.
- In a food processor, add the nuts and ground them by pulsing until they have the desired consistency and set aside. If you are making homemade bread crumbs, add the bread into the food processor and pulse until you have fine bread crumbs.
- Preheat the oven to 200C/390F.
- Heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Finely chop onion and garlic and add to the pan. Fry until translucent and add roughly chopped mushrooms and finely chopped rosemary. Sauté for a couple of minutes. Turn the heat off.
- Add the grounded nuts and bread crumbs and mix together.
- Pour the soy sauce, yeast extract and add the dried mushrooms stock, combine all the ingredients until a dough is formed and adjust with salt and pepper.
- Grease the loaf pan with oil or vegan butter. Spoon evenly onto parchment on a baking dish, drizzle olive oil and bake for about 40 minutes or until the top is browned.
Notes
- Leave the Nut Roast cooling for at least 20 minutes before you start slicing it for serving.
Nutrition
| If you tried our recipe, please leave a comment or tag us on Instagram @Sixhungryfeet. We are always happy to see your creations! |
FOODHEAL says
I am already thinking about how I can make this nut roast. It looks filling and very healthy. Something to bring people other at the dinner
veenaazmanov says
A unique and a vegan recipe. Very interesting. Love the combination of healthy ingredients making this dish perfect for any meal or snack box option. I love it.
Paula Montenegro says
My love for porcini mushrooms is never-ending and I'm always looking for new recipes. This is the most original and tempting I have come upon in a long time! I can't wait to try it. So tempting!
Beth says
This nut roast looks and sounds so delicious that I would love it right now – for breakfast. It reminds me of a loaf that I used to make from the Tassajara bread book, but much richer. The suggestions for making it gluten-free are great.
Kushigalu says
What a unique recip to try for Christmas. This is something new to me. Thanks for sharing
Leslie says
I feel like I've been missing out not knowing about this recipe! This one is a definite winner!
Marisa F. Stewart says
It's so nice to have recipes that bring back wonderful memories. The vegan nut loaf looks and sounds like it's loaded with flavor and goodness. I do like having a meatless day and this loaf would certainly satisfy my meat eating Hubby.
Amanda says
Thanks for such a tasty nut roast recipe! I loved the flavor the porcini mushrooms added, and it was so hearty. Perfect for the upcoming holidays!
Chandice Probst says
Wow what a unique and delicious dinner! Love the combination of the nuts, mushrooms and clove!
Connie says
This is very different from anything that I’ve ever had but sure do love all that it entails. Wish you safe travels to Ireland if you go this year. I would love to make it there some time. It looks beautiful!
Gloria Studniberg says
This recipe looks great for the winter months. Can you tell me what “yeast extract” is? Is that Marmite? Can I substitute? I’m in Canada.
Thank you!
Laura says
Hi Gloria, yes, we use Marmite, as we have easy access to it. Marmite provides that umami flavour that makes dishes unique. I use miso paste when I don't have marmite al home, maybe you can try that!
Rob says
Hi Gloria, I'm in Saint John, New Brunswick and I would substitute Vegemite. Very similar...it's the Australian version of Marmite. I can usually find it at Loblaws.
Janet says
Hi, the roast looks great but I don’t eat mushrooms. What can I substitute it with? Thanks. Janet
Laura says
Hi Janet, maybe try using eggplant. Finely chop it and cook it with the rest of the ingredients before baking in the oven. Let me know how it goes 🙂
#tastyveganfoodie says
This nut roast is an absolute stunner! It was the centrepiece of our christmas dinner table this year and is by far the tastiest I’ve ever tried. This will be our go to recipe from now on. Many thanks ? and Merry Christmas!
Lisa F. says
Looks delicious! Can you post the gravy recipe as well?
Laura says
Hi Lisa, we use gravy granules mixed with onion and mushrooms.
Katy says
My favourite recipe to date, and I’ve made a fair few nut roasts.. vegan and non! The mushroom stock, soy and miso give such a lovely umami depth to this recipe. The texture is spot on, although, as my mum always says, leave a nut roast to rest for a good 20 minutes before serving to let it firm up a bit. The leftovers are in the freezer and it’s a firm on this year’s Christmas recipe list!
Laura says
Thank you Katy, so glad to read your comment! This is one of our favorite recipes on the blog. We are planning on making it for Christmas as well this year 🙂 All the fmaily loves it.
Kim D says
I’ve made this toast twice now and LOVE it! However, the second time I made it didn’t hold together at all. I tried cooking it longer but it didn’t help. It came out very wet and has to be scooped out to eat it. Two things different that I did the second time: I used a different GF breadcrumb that didn’t have egg in it and I put it in the fridge for about 1 1/2 hours before cooking it (I took it out of the fridge for an hour before cooking to bring to room temperature). Any ideas what went wrong?? I want to make this again! 🙂
Laura says
Hi Kim, I think the problem was leaving it out of the fridge, cause everything would have got too moist. Next time, if you take it out of the fridge, you can transfer it directly to the oven. I don't think it would be the gluten-free breadcrumbs as we used those sometimes and it works perfectly fine 🙂 Hope I helped!
Noreen says
Made this today but it really good,crumbling a bit but that's ok,maby next time add a bit more water??? I added pine nuts to it too,I'll definitely be making it for Christmas Dinner...thank you ??????☘☘☘
Laura says
Hi Noreen, thanks a lot for your comment! you can add some more water yes, but it's ok if it crumbles a bit, it's totally normal and still delicious 🙂
Pamela Runkle says
I did a test run of this recipe yesterday and it is absolutely delicious. I will be making it for Christmas dinner to have a vegan alternative on hand as well as our regular turkey dinner. Because I would like to make it ahead of time (so I'm not in the kitchen all day on Christmas day) can you please advise what would be the best way to make ahead? Should I make the nut roast and freeze straight away or bake it first and then freeze? And warm it from frozen?? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Laura says
Hi Pamela, that's lovely to hear! I would freeze it before cooking and then warm it from frozen. I don't know how much longer it will take though as we've never done it before. We normally make it the day before and leave it in the fridge. Enjoy your lovely christmas dinner!
Aggy says
It looks yummy and im hoping to make it this Christmas. Can I use dried mushroom powder instead of mushrooms?
Laura says
Hi Aggy, we recommend using dried mushrooms, as they give more texture to the dish.
Gill says
Made it this afternoon and very, very pleased with how it's turned out. Usually I've added an egg to bind the mixture in previous nut roasts so being that it's vegan ie no egg, I was worried it wouldn't hold together, but it did!
I cooled it, then sliced it and popped it in the freezer for our daughter to (hopefully) enjoy on Christmas day!
Laura says
Thank you Gill, glad to read you enjoyed cooking the nut roast 🙂 It's definitely one of our favourite recipes.
Maria says
The whole family, vegan and red meat eaters, loved it. Did get a little crumbly, though. Maybe there is some good advice on how to make it stick together better?
Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Astra says
I'm glad everyone enjoyed it. That does happen sometimes. If you blend up the nuts a lot finer and try to compress it as much as possible it shouldn't happen. I usually make this recipe ahead of time and leave it in the fridge before baking. I think it helps too. You could also mix in a 1 egg vegan substitute to help it bind together more.
Colin says
I made this for our Sunday New Year dinner... it’s better than all the bought ones we have tried. I really recommend this recipe. Will definitely be doing this again. Thanks
Astra says
Thank you for the lovely comment. I'm glad it was well enjoyed!
Lucy says
This is the most delicous thing I've cooked for ages! The only thing is I didn't read the recipe properly and ate 1/3 of the loaf by myself in one go. Am so full! But in a good way.
Thanks for the recipe. So quick, easy, healthy and delicious.
Laura says
Thank you Lucy! So glad you liked our Vegan Nut Roast, it's a family classic!
Kim DiRaffaele says
Are you sure about the breadcrumb measurement? 1 1/2 cups = 354 grams not 80.
Laura says
Hi Kim, we used soft bread to make our own breadcrumbs. The bread was quite fluffy so it was light.