Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Walnut and Vegetable Pate


I have been experimenting with a lot of nut cheezes recently. Today I decided to see what I could do with walnuts. I had originally intended to use this as salad dressing but then changed my mind and used the sprouted quinoa salad instead. After tasting this spread I knew it would be great with raw veggie dippers. It would also work well in place on mayonnaise on a sandwich. Here is what I made tonight.

Walnut and Vegetable Pate
Makes 16 servings – approximately ¼ cup each

Ingredients:

2 cups walnut pieces
4 cups filtered water to soak walnuts
2 stalks celery, cut into chunks
1 carrot, cut into chunks
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into chunks
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons onion, peeled and chopped (start with 1 T if you aren't a fan of raw onion)
4 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped fine to help the food processor
1 pinch salt, or to taste
1 pinch freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1 pinch celery seed, or to taste
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste

Directions:

Soak the walnuts for a few hours and drain thoroughly. Place everything in your food processor and process until smooth. Serve cold.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 103.77
Calories From Fat (78%) - 80.43

Total Fat - 9.61g
Saturated Fat-  0.91g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 38.33mg
Potassium - 135.66mg
Total Carbohydrates - 3.71g
Fiber - 1.51g
Sugar - 1.35g
Protein - 2.51g

Comments:

This worked well with vegetable dippers but would also be a good salad dressing or sandwich spread. If you aren’t crazy about raw onion you may want to start with one tablespoon and go up from there. I happen to like onion, but not everyone does. This spread gets very smooth if you process it long enough. The texture is similar to whipped cream cheese. The color is close to salmon mousse. Next time I may season this will Old Bay and add dulse flakes to play with the salmon color.

Each serving of this salad contains approximately 1,150IU of vitamin A, 20mg of calcium, 20mcg of folate, 60mg of phosphorus and 30mg of magnesium. You can see how this would make a fairly nutritious sandwich spread in place of mayo that doesn’t contain any of those nutrients.

Unrelated note:

This is going to be my last post tonight. I hope you aren’t snowed in like us.  Have a great evening everyone.

11 comments:

  1. This sounds great, it seems like the world of veggie pate is boundless. I really like the idea of the Old Bay addition. Thanks for the great raw recipes...I'm getting excited to try some.

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  2. Rose,

    I agree with you. The sky does seem to be the limit on veggie pates. It wasn't until I saw the color in good light that I thought salmon which made me think of Old Bay and kelp.

    I am happy I can inspire you to try more raw recipes. They are easier than I expected (at least the ones I am choosing are). ;)

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

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  3. Hi Alicia!

    I just noticed that you are following my blog! And that you added my small "Vittles" space in the universe to your blogroll?! I am SO honored! I mean, you are very accomplished and have many friends already. I am just absolutely delighted that you would include me among such a great crowd of vegans and vegetarians! Thank you!

    I want you to know I'm following you too! Now I've got to get you into MY blogroll! It'll be the next thing I do! :)

    And thanks again for the info about the Excalibur!

    I can't wait to talk to you again, Alicia! :)

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  4. I love walnuts, so this recipe sounds great to me! I love that you add sun-dried tomatoes, it sounds really flavorful! Yesterday, I made nut cheeze (your recipe) but I used raw cashews only and I made nori wrap with carrots and avocado, I really loved it (I think I liked the taste of miso paste in the mixture). Thanks for the inspiration, Alicia:)

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  5. Thanks so much for sharing the nut cheeze recipes. I'm loving them!

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  6. Valerie,

    You are very welcome. It was late last night when I stopped by your blog or I would have left a comment. I will be stopping by your blog later today.

    Oraphan,

    Glad you liked the nut cheeze in nori. I think the miso worked well in that one especially with the nori. I had leftover nut cheeze from that recipe and used a little water to thin it out and used as salad dressing. Thought I would mention that in case you had extra nut cheeze. Glad you liked it too.

    Jeni,

    Hi, glad you like the sound of it. I have been really into nut cheeze variations lately.

    Heather,

    The hubby and I have been eating a lot of these lately. I think this one would be great in a romaine leaf with chopped veggies on top. That may be our lunch today with a spinach salad.

    Alicia

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  7. two vegan boys,

    Thanks! I hope your family likes it too.

    It looks oddly like salmon mousse to me. Next time I am going to try seasoning it like fish with Old Bay and kelp.

    Alicia

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  8. That looks wonderful, I love these kinds of meals!

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  9. Janet,

    Thanks. Not what you normal think of as dinner in the middle of a blizzard, but it was a meal high in nutrition. ;)

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete

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