If you’re looking for a centrepiece main course for a special dinner, I don’t think you can beat this: a tasty nut pâté mixture encased in crisp, golden puff pastry. It looks and tastes wonderful, is easy to make and can be prepared in advance. Serve it in winter with vegan gravy, cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts and roast potatoes, or in summer with braised seasonal vegetables.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a saucepan over a low- medium heat, add the onion and fry for 10 minutes, then add the mushrooms and garlic and cook, stirring, for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Put the cashews and bread into a food processor
and process to ne crumbs, then add the onion and mushroom mixture, tarragon, shoyu, yeast extract and lemon juice and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Spread the puff pastry sheet out on the work surface, with the shorter edges at the sides. Place the nut mixture in a rectangle down the centre of the pastry (about 8cm/3in wide), leaving 2cm (3/4in) clear at the top and bottom edges. With a sharp knife, make diagonal cuts in the side pieces of pastry, starting from the top left corner and working towards the lling at about a 45-degree angle, making each strip about 1cm (1/2in) wide. Repeat on the other side, starting at the top right corner, cutting down towards the lling. Enclose the lling with the pastry strips: fold the end pieces in rst, then alternately fold over diagonal strips from each side to create a plaited effect – this is much easier than it sounds. Brush the pastry with soya milk.

Gently transfer the pastry to a baking sheet and bake for 45–60 minutes, until it is puffed up, crisp and golden.

Serves 6

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
200g (7oz) button mushrooms, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
200g (7oz/13⁄4 cups) cashews
100g (31/2oz) fresh white bread
1 tsp dried tarragon
2 tbsp shoyu soy sauce
1 tsp Marmite (yeast extract)
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
250g (9oz) ready-rolled puff pastry
soya milk, for brushing
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

This delicious recipe is taken from our Cookbook of the month

‘Rose Elliot’s Complete Vegan’ courtesy of our friends at Nourish Books

Buy your copy HERE