Nut Loaf – Vegan Month of Food

Poesy and Plate
 Vegan Month of Food  2014

(check out the hundreds of VeganMoFo blogs HERE)
My goal: cook and blog about vegan food 20 times
  during the month of September. 
My theme: words and food

Night is My Sister, and How Deep in Love, by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Night is my sister, and how deep in love,
How drowned in love and weedily washed ashore,
There to be fretted by the drag and shove
At the tide's edge, I lie—these things and more:
Whose arm alone between me and the sand,
Whose voice alone, whose pitiful breath brought near,
Could thaw these nostrils and unlock this hand,
She could advise you, should you care to hear.
Small chance, however, in a storm so black,
A man will leave his friendly fire and snug
For a drowned woman's sake, and bring her back
To drip and scatter shells upon the rug.
No one but Night, with tears on her dark face,
Watches beside me in this windy place.

Day One - Delicious!

I’m pulling out the big vegan guns today with a nut loaf. This is the type of recipe I usually tip-toe around for about a year, glancing at the recipe from time to time, wondering when my husband will be out of town so I can try it – alone, in the privacy of a plate hovering over the garbage disposal in case of a gastronomic disaster. For an entire year, I ask myself, “Too vegan? Too many nuts? Where are the beans? Will I gag? Just plain old too weird?”

Well, first let me say that there is no such thing as ‘too vegan’ cuz ‘vegan’ just means ‘real food in its natural state’. I mean, for example, an apple is vegan.  Let me also say, there’s truly no thing as ‘too many nuts’ is there? Besides, these are pulverized so much that it’s not like eating a mouthful of walunts….crunch, crunch, crunch….no, not at all.

Next I want to say that I did not gag and I did not hover over the garbage disposal. Just the opposite.  I ate the entire 3 nut loaves all by myself. Mr. Living Cookbook never ate a bite. (Maybe I secretly DO harbor a smidge of ‘too vegan’ deep inside? Gotta get over that…..)

Leftovers the next day - still delicious! 

I include the touching poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay because the owner of this delicious recipe is one of three sisters – all three vegetarians their entire lives. I believe this was their mother’s recipe, originally called ‘Mother Eastlund’s Nut Roast.” I was fortunate enough to be given a copy by her son in law. He told me that the sisters were raised near a slaughter house and therefore became vegetarian. (I pause here to wonder what might happen if we all had a glimpse into a slaughter house….hmmmm.)

This nut loaf was frozen, uncooked. It turned out great!
 Just the tiniest bit soggy in the middle, as you might see in the photo. 

Mother Eastlund’s Nut Roast
 (note: This make an incredible amount! Cut this recipe in half and it’s enough for 1 ½ loaf pans, or one loaf pan and one smaller casserole for the freezer. This freezes great!)

2 lbs English walnuts (Diamond brand is best)

½ pkg. herb croutons (such as Pepperidge Farm seasoned)

1 ½ green peppers

4 stalks celery

1 ½ medium onions

Some sprigs of fresh parsley

Grind all of the above in a food processor until very fine

Add:

¾ - 1 large can of tomato juice (just keep adding juice till it’s moist but not wet – mine might have been too wet) (Today I added about 8 ounces.)

3 eggs (I used Ener-G Egg Replacer, but I think flax eggs would be better.)

½ t ground marjoram

½ t poultry type seasoning (I used a homemade Chicken-Style seasoning)

Beau Monde seasoning and tobasco to taste

Mix all ingredients and place in a buttered loaf pan

Press 3 T butter (Earth Balance is the best) into the top of the loaf which will create a nice crust

Bake 350 ° for 45-60 minutes or until brown.

Cool before slicing. (Mine was a bit wet in the center, but it didn’t affect the taste. The loaves I pulled from the freezer were also a bit wet.)

Serve with Mushroom Gravy.
(note: double the gravy recipe to have enough to serve over mashed potatoes)

Saute lots of mushrooms in butter until brown. Set aside. In the same pan brown 1 t sugar until toasted, but not burned. Add 2 T butter, and 1 T flour to create a nice brown roux. Add 2 C veggie broth and stir till thick. Return the mushrooms to the gravy.