This elegant herbed mushroom veggie pate makes an excellent spread on celery sticks, crackers, rye crisp or an elegant starter when served with crusty French bread on a bed of lettuce.
Makes: One 8” round loaf – 16 servings
Ingredients:
You need two nonstick 3 x 6 x 2” loaf pans (small fruitcake pans) for this recipe. Or you can use an 8” round cake pan.
1 tbsp olive oil
4 oz small brown (cremini) mushrooms, or portobellas, sliced
1 medium onion peeled and chopped
1 medium-large carrot, peeled and diced small
1 small baking potato, peeled and cubed
½ cup plus 2 tbsp warm water
½ cup toasted shelled walnut, or pecans
½ cup toasted shelled sunflower seeds
½ cup chickpea flour (besan) or soy flour
½ cup nutritional yeast flakes
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tbsp dark miso (sometimes called red or mugi miso)
2 tbsp ground flax seed
1 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried marjoram
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp white pepper
A few gratings of freshly-ground nutmeg
To prepare pans:
Toasted sesame oil to the pans
Preheat the oven to 350°F
Method:
- Grease the pans with toasted sesame oil and line the bottoms with parchment paper cut to fit. Oil the paper also.
- Sauté the onions, mushrooms and carrots in the olive oil over medium heat until softened (or you can microwave them in a covered Pyrex dish for 6 minutes, instead).
- Combine the vegetables with all of the remaining batter ingredients in a blender blend until very smooth. (You may have to stop the blender and scrape down the sides from time to time.) Divide the mixture between the two pans. Cover each pan with foil. Place the pans inside of a 9×13” shallow with an inch of hot water in the bottom. Bake for 1 hour.
- Cool the pans on a rack.
- Wrap or seal well and refrigerate for a week. Freeze up to 3 months.
