A tasty vegan pate made with roasted beetroot, lentils and herbs. It's great on crusty bread, toast, crackers, with Mexican food and even dolloped on jacket potatoes.
Ingredients
340g (cooked weight) lentils - from a tin or cook your own, any colour will do
1 large or 2 small fresh beetroot
1 bulb fennel
4 mushrooms, finely chopped
1 tablespoon tomato puree
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 heaped teaspoon dried marjoram or oregano
6 cloves garlic
3 teaspoons olive oil
Half teaspoon chilli flakes (optional)
Pinch of salt & a few twists of black pepper
Instructions
Heat the oven to 180C / 170C fan / 350F / Gas 4
Roughly slice the fennel and place in a baking tray with about a teaspoon of the olive oil.
Peel the beetroot and roughly cut into chunks about 2cm square. Place on a separate baking tray and add 2 teaspoons olive oil.
Crush the cloves of garlic with the blade of a knife and add to the tray with the garlic (don’t remove the papery skins).
Pop both baking trays in the oven.
Remove the fennel tray after about 20 minutes (the fennel should be soft).
Remove the beetroot tray after 35-40 minutes when it’s easy to pierce with a sharp knife.
In a food processor (or large bowl if you’re using a stick blender), place the fennel, beetroot, lentils, mushrooms, nutritional yeast, the marjoram or oregano and the chilli flakes (if using).
Remove the cooked garlic from the papery skins (it should be lovely and squishy) and add that to the food processor too.
Buzz the mixture until it’s well blended - you can leave some texture if you like, it doesn’t have to be baby-food smooth.
Place in a shallow, ovenproof dish and cook for about 40 minutes, until the top if firm to the touch.
Allow to cool and serve with bread, toast, oat cake or crackers.
Recipe by Veggie Runners at https://www.veggierunners.com/2015/11/27/vegan-roast-beetroot-and-lentil-pate/