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 glazed carrots
- 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 ½ 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.
Neil says
Made this for Sunday lunch and it was indeed easy and delicious. It's now likely to be our Christmas dinner this year! Also has some leftover bits in a toastie with vegan cheese and tomato ketchup - it worked very well.
Sophie and Paul says
So happy to hear that you enjoyed it Neil! That toastie sounds amazing too - gonna have to try that 🙂
Rhiannon says
Vegan gravy recipe please? I'm trying to work out ho to make a vegan mushroom and onion gravy to go with mashed potatoes.
Sophie and Paul says
Hey Rhiannon, what a coincidence! We were just now finishing a post for exactly this 🙂 Here's the recipe link: vegan gravy with onion and mushrooms. Hope you like it! Take care
Debbie says
Absolutely fabulous Nut roast, so tasty and a lovely consistency. My husband said it was the best he's ever tasted. I'll be making it on Christmas day. Thank you
Katharine says
I love this recipe! I’m doubling it so it’s a 2lb loaf, any advice on cooking time?
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Katherine, Thanks so much! We've made a larger loaf of 1 1/2 times the recipe, and only cooked it for about 5-10 minutes longer, so I think for a deeper double size loaf it would probably be good in around 45-55mins. If the top looks like it's getting too done, you could cover it. I think you might just be able to squeeze double the amount in a 2 lb tin but you might have some excess. The one we used here is 21cm long, 11cm wide and 6 cm deep and gets about 2/3 full for reference. Happy cooking!
Caroline says
I made this for Christmas dinner and loved it! I froze the leftovers in individual portions and used for tasty work lunches and it made a substantial snack for hiking.
Sophie and Paul says
So happy you loved the nut roast, Caroline! Great idea with the hiking snack too.
Mandy Lane says
Hello
What consistency should it be? Mine seems quite wet?
Sophie and Paul says
Hi Mandy, if you are talking about the mix before cooking, I would say the consistency is moist but holds its shape and not so loose that it spreads out on its own. You might find it useful to watch the video to see what to aim for. If it's too wet it might be because - 1 the nuts are not finely ground, 2 the breadcrumbs were very fresh and not dried. The chia seeds also soak up the moisture gradually, so the mixture might look a bit wet at first until the seeds have swelled up. You can simply add some more breadcrumbs to get a thicker consistency. Hope that helps!
Beverley says
Since recently becoming vegan I have tried loads of recipes for nut roast, they have all been delicious but none of them have ever been firm enough to actually slice. I tried yours just in case and am so pleased that it retains its shape and doesn’t crumble to pieces. It was a lot more moist than others and that must be the reason. It tasted so good and was so easy. I didn’t have any cranberries so put in a couple of spoons of cranberry sauce .
Sophie and Paul says
Thanks so much for you fabulous feedback Angela! We're delighted you found our recipe 🙂