Mushroom Nut Roast

1

Gather and prepare your ingredients. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan. Line a 16x16cm square baking tray with parchment paper.

2

Place the dried mushrooms into a bowl. Pour over the hot water and set aside to soak.

3

Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery with a light sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, for 6-7 minutes, until softened.

4

Add the garlic, paprika, tomato puree, tamari, and thyme. Cook for 1-2 minutes, until darkened and fragrant.

5

Add the fresh mushrooms and cook, stirring often, for 10-12 minutes, until most of their liquid has evaporated.

6

Blend the by-now-well-soaked dried mushrooms until you have a coarse liquid. Add this to the pan and cook off for about a minute.

7

Turn off the heat. Stir through the lentils and roughly mash using either a potato masher or fork, until about ⅓ of the lentils remain whole and the rest are broken up. Transfer into a bowl if you don’t have room in your frying pan.

8

Stir through the nuts, nutritional yeast and flax. Adjust seasoning to taste. Because it’s vegan, you can safely taste it at this stage.

9

Scrape into your prepared tray. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow it to cool for several minutes in the baking tray before removing to serve.