Peanut-free Pea-Nut-Roast

Nut roasts are something you eat at Christmas. That's what you might think; but Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe is a big lover of nutroasts at all times of the year. In 2008 she already held a blog event 'Neb at Nut Roast' with lovely recipes incoming in order to contradict some extraordinarily strange statements that nut roasts and vegetarians don't go together (some even calling it an 'insult to vegetarians'). Well, Johanna and me dare to differ, we both love nut roasts. In my eyes it is the most iconic British comfort food and not just during winter time!

Since her follow-up event 'A Neb at Nut Roast II' ends in May (more exactly today - yes, I'm late as usual) I didn't want to make a hearthy roast. Summer is arriving quickly and my roast ought to reflect this by being quite summer-ish. At first I tried a veganized version of Rose Elliots pine nut and carrot roast, but I wasn't quite convinced. Not enough summer in there. Then I saw the 'poppyseed encrusted green pea burgers' at Just Bento's and knew immediately that this is the colour and taste I wanted. So heavily pea-inspired I made this ridiculy easy pea-nut roast (allergic persons please do relax: no peanuts involved *hehe*). And out came this lovely green nut roast, perfectly fit for a summer night:

I baked it in a silicone form since the pine nut roast clinged terribly to my usual loaf form and I was quite satisfied with the results; it came loose neatly. Now, does this look like summer or not?

I served it with pasta and a carrot sauce:

And here is the easy-peasy recipe:

Easy Peasy Nut Roast

200 g Brazil nuts

50 g Cashew nuts

400 g shelled and cooked peas (you can use a frozen package if no fresh peas are available)

1 red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

herb salt and pepper to taste

Cook the peas in a pan, covered barely with salted water. Cook for roughly 5 minutes until the peas become a bright green (don't overcook them or they will become greyish and you will loose the nice colour). Retain the cooking water.

Put the nuts in a food processor and process until smooth but not too smooth, they should still be crumbly like breadcrumbs. Add the cooked peas, the onion and the garlic and process. Carefully add cooking water until it becomes an easily shapeable but firm dough. Use salt and pepper to taste.

Press in form (if you don't use a silicone form, spray the form with oil and use breadcrumbs to avoid sticking on the sides of the form).

Bake in the oven (sorry I forgot how long, maybe 20 to 30 minutes - I will update next time I make this recipe; and there will be a next time because this is a keeper).