This easy nut roast is a family favourite. It’s a staple for a vegan roast dinner and is always popular at Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. Our recipe is quick to prepare with just 10 ingredients and is rich in nutty flavour.
There are a lot of recipes out there for nut roast. But there’s two reasons why we’ve been making this nut roast pretty much every week for more years than I can remember:
- Because it’s so easy!
There’s hardly any prep work. You just need to chop and fry an onion and some garlic. Then all you need to do is whizz up the nuts in a food processor and mix everything together. Just like that, it’s ready to go in the oven!
- Because it’s so yummy!
The other thing that sets this recipe apart from other nut loafs is that it’s super nutty and doesn’t contain tons of ingredients or filler. I don’t know about you, but I think nut roast should be full of nutty flavour, and not taste like vegetables.
This recipe is inspired by the famous Nut Roast from pioneering vegetarian restaurant Cranks which opened in London in the 1960s. We made a few adaptations to make the loaf hold together and be easy to serve and slice.
It's a great centrepiece for your vegan Christmas or Thanksgiving celebrations. But it's also a recipe that's simple to make for an everyday family meal.
We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Ingredient tips
Here’s what you’ll need for this vegan nut roast:
- Nuts - we tend to use a mix of peanuts, cashews and walnuts. We buy organic nuts in bulk for better value. And because you’re grinding them anyway you can get the pieces rather than whole nuts to save a bit more!
- Breadcrumbs - you can make your own (instructions below) or use shop bought. We find this nut loaf the perfect way to use up the end of a loaf that has gone a bit dry.
- Onion and garlic
- Olive oil - for an oil free version you can use some broth to sauté the onions and garlic.
- Dried herbs - we like herbs de provence or using dried herbs from our garden.
- Veggie stock - we use Marigold Swiss Bouillon Powder to make our stock. You can use your favourite vegan bouillon or homemade broth.
- Soy sauce - this enhances the umami taste and adds seasoning to the nuts. We like to use organic soy sauce which has a really full bodied flavour.
- Chia seeds - these help to bind the nut loaf so it holds together well and is easy to slice.
- Dried cranberries - these are optional, but they add a nice subtle sweetness and a special festive twist if you are cooking this nut roast for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Breadcrumbs
We’re always saving any stale bread and transforming it into breadcrumbs to use later.
Here’s how to make your own breadcrumbs at home:
- You can use white, wholemeal, and other types of bread. Wholemeal bread is what we like to use for this nut loaf recipe.
- Cut your stale or toasted bread into cubes and process in a food processor until fine.
- If the bread isn’t dry enough to blend finely, you can spread it out on a baking sheet and bake at 150ºC (300ºF) for a few minutes. Then blend again.
- Store breadcrumbs in a jar or airtight container. For long term storage we keep them in the freezer.
Step by step
You'll find the full recipe in the card below, but here's a handy visual overview to the steps.
Step 1 - In a frying pan, saute the diced onion and garlic in olive oil until soft, translucent and just starting to brown.
Step 2 - In a food processor pulse the nuts until fine.
Step 3 - In a mixing bowl, combine the ground nuts, sauteed onion, breadcrumbs, soy sauce, herbs, chia seeds, optional cranberries and vegetable stock.
Step 4 - Fill a lined tin with the nut mixture and smooth off the top with a spatula.
Step 5 - Bake in a preheated oven at 180C / 360F for 30-40 minutes until the top is browned.
Step 6 - Leave in the tin to rest for 10 minutes, before placing a board or serving plate on top, and flipping over to remove the roast from the tin.
Variations & substitutions
You can vary the nuts to your taste. Experiment with pecans, hazels, almonds, chestnuts or even pumpkin or sunflower seeds.
As an alternative to soy sauce, you can use 2 tsp of Marmite or yeast extract mixed with 4 tsp boiling water.
Serving
We love our nut roast served with:
- Roast potatoes and other seasonal roasted veggies
- Some caramelised onions
- A good helping of vegan gravy
- Sautéed kale or steamed broccoli
- Some homemade cranberry sauce
Nut roast is also yummy served cold. And leftovers make a great sandwich filling.
Storing and freezing
Leftovers easily keep for three days in a covered container in the fridge.
This nut roast also freezes well. You can freeze it before cooking, directly in a lined tin.
After it’s frozen solid, you can take it out of the tin with the baking paper, and wrap in more paper and foil or an airtight bag for longer storage. Simply return to the tin to defrost overnight and cook as normal.
You can also freeze cooked leftover roast. We like to freeze individual slices separated by parchment paper. That way, it’s really convenient to defrost as many portions as you need.
We hope you enjoy this easy nut roast recipe! We invite you to try our other nutty vegan recipes:
Our Vegan Nut Burgers are a great nut roast alternative for the summer.
These Vegan Almond Crescent Cookies make great gifts (for both yourself and your friends!)
And this Vegan Mushroom and Walnut Pate is always a hit at parties!
Easy Nut Roast
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (220 g) mixed nuts walnuts, peanuts, cashews...
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup (100 g) fine breadcrumbs
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp dried herbs
- 1 cup (240 ml) vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 2 tbsp dried cranberries chopped, optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C / 360°F.
- In a frying pan, cook the diced onion and garlic with the olive oil, until translucent and just starting to brown.
- In a food processor, pulse the nuts until fine. If you are also making your own breadcrumbs now, process the bread separately from the nuts, as they will take longer to become fine.
- In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients - the ground nuts, breadcrumbs, fried onion and garlic, soy sauce, dried herbs, chia seeds, optional cranberries, and vegetable stock.
- Transfer the nut mixture into a lined loaf tin, and smooth the top with a silicone spatula.
- Bake the nut roast for 30-40 minutes until the top starts to brown.
- Remove from the oven, and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. To remove from the tin, place a board on top of the tin, flip over and peel off the baking paper.
- Before serving, you can add some extra nuts on top for decoration.
Loved our recipe? Have a question we can answer? We'd love to hear from you! Sophie and Paul 💚