Smoked Chilli Cashew Pâté
I teamed up with Harris Farm to bring to you a delicious veggie filled, vegan Christmas lunch spread. As much as I love (too much) crackling and seafood at Christmas, I love these veggie filled recipes to keep the balance and to be sure I don’t fill up before we serve my Great Aunty Dot’s Christmas pudding. If you know me or my work, I love a good dip.
In this case we’re talking about a Pâté – but to be honest, this one is pretty much a dip because it’s plant based. Don’t be fooled though, it’s rich, deep, got some umami goodness from the tomatoes and roasted garlic. It’s absolutely delicious on some toasted baguette, sourdough or even some of my crunchy seeded crackers.
Here’s the thing with dips, they’re actually very easy to make. You can use a base recipe, which I have in my Get Your Shit Together free ebook and then go crazy with your flavours – pumpkin, eggplant, chickpea (hummus), beetroot, capsicum, broccoli, sweet potato, carrot and the list goes on but I think that covers nearly all the season we have to work with.
Dips are your way to Flavour Town, with really not much effort. You just need a few ingredients, a food processor and be ready to taste test as you go. The taste testing is important because my tastebuds are different to yours and I want your dip to be epic, with a little extra salt, pepper, squeeze of lemon or oil, you can take your dip from pretty good to A M A Z I N G.
I want your food at amazing. Nothing less and all you need is those 4 ingredients to get you there.
Ingredients
- 1 medium sized carrot
- 1 600g eggplant
- 5 cloves garlic
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt
- 4-6 tablespoons Peace Love & Vegetables smoked chilli cashew cheese
- 1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cup packed semi-dried tomatoes
- 1/8 cup water
- 1 lemon juice and zest
- Pepper
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoons parsley finely chopped
- Baguette to serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
- Roughly chop carrot and eggplant. Place on roasting tray, along with garlic cloves, drizzle with 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 good pinches of salt. Place in oven at roast for 25 minutes.
- Once veggies are cooked, place in a food processor with cashew cheese, chickpeas, semi-dried tomatoes, water, lemon juice and zest and a crack of black pepper. Process until well combined. Adjust the smokey flavour with more cashew cheese to the level you like. The flavours will develop and mellow over the next day, so this is a great make ahead recipe.
- Serve with a fresh sprinkle of smoked paprika, parsley, salt and baguette slices either fresh or toasted.
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Check out my recipe for Smoked Chilli Cashew Pâté for a delicious vegan Christmas lunch over here on the Harris Farm blog.
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