Nut cutlets

[Autumnpug7]

Tesco ,years ago used to do vegan nut cutlets in a box of 4 ..we had these with roast dinner on a Sunday and as burgers in the week .
Sadly they were discontinued,and I've never found anything similar since
Posting here incase anyone has recommendations

One of the least expensive websites I use for pulses etc

They do dried soya chunks aswel which brings back memories 🤣

I got quite excited this week ,as I discovered alternative stores,thinking they would sell nut cutlets ..but sadly no ..
15 ISH years ago I used to do a regular order from the vegan store and there was a good choice of nut roast type foods ..but that is sadly no more

Cranks one is a classic!
https://cranks.co.uk/recipes/nut-roast/

will see if I can find the recipe for a carrot and peanut one I like too.

Thanks @Birdsongsingingagainandagain

Carrot and peanut sounds delicious too.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie here it is with my mothers scribbles plus she says (to me) I liquidise tomatoes so don’t use juice as I always have tins of tomatoes.
Amounts at side for time and a half amount that I make for gatherings. shoyu is soy sauce.

@Autumnpug7 as a lifelong veggie I’m totally with your frustration at losing our precious few “slots” on menus and supermarket shelves to fake meat. I hate the stuff and agree its often nutritionally poor compared to traditional veggie proteins. I was about to suggest Goodlife nutburgers but see they have also been discontinued.

I used to make my own burgers and nut roasts in batches but older recipes work best for this. I see the “old fashioned veg food” thread has already been linked and agree its worth checking out. I made a few recs on that thread, for varied recipes for nut/pulse roasts and burgers my first port of call is Rose Elliot. The older books also have the advantage of using more seasonal and everyday ingredients than many of the modern books which makes them good for everyday family cooking.

Thanks again @Birdsongsingingagainandagain It looks like such a well loved recipe. The tomato puts me off though, annoyingly. I'll have a think if there's anything I could perhaps substitute it for.

Another one who misses nut burgers. They were made by Goodlife and I got them from Waitrose, but sadly no more.
Lidl sometimes has a dried nut roast mix in a foil loaf tin. You're meant to make it and cook it in the container it comes in. However, it also makes a really good base for nut burgers and adding extras such as grated carrot and onion you can get quite a good burger mix out of it.

the photo from the Cranks book is adorable ❤️

@Fgfgfg Goodlife !! Thats it !! - I can picture the packet and the logo now.

What could I use instead of egg for this recipe..I know there's an egg replacement on the market,but I've not managed to get my hands-on it yet

Chop and fry an onion. Chop or grind mixed nuts (I deliberately leave some slightly bigger bits). Whizz/mash up tinned beans, any type, retaining some of the liquid. You can use baked beans if you want to but I rinse off most of the tomato sauce. Add some liquid from the bean tin. Add a beaten egg if you want to, but it’s not necessary. Mix it all together with seasoning.

Press into a greased loaf tin and bake. Can be cut into slices and frozen in portions if you want to. Lovely with a mushroom, tomato or chilli sauce.

It's very easy, a good freezer standby and very flexible - you can vary the proportions / types of beans and nuts however you like.

I could definitely manage that ..thanks for the recipe

Flax/Chia seeds in water (slightly grind the flax), chickpea flour, chickpea water (sold as aquafaba for egg white substitute), cornflour, oil and baking powder mix - anything which becomes a big gummy or sticky in cooking.

I rarely used eggs in the burgers or roasts I made simply because if you have at least one gummy ingredient you don’t need the egg for extra binding.

Thank you for the recipe @Birdsongsingingagainandagain. I'll give that go!

I wonder if just using stock would be ok or pureed anything e.g. red peppers.

Thankyou xx

@Autumnpug7 i think 4 eggs sounds too many it would be too ‘eggy’ I’d probably use just one. In fact I don’t think I’ve seen many nut roast recipes these days using egg but that’s to keep them vegan I’d guess

This recipe is an old one from one of the Rose Elliot books but I used it regularly when the DC were all at home as it was one of their favourites:

https://eatinginwithchas.co.uk/2024/07/10/continental-lentil-and-walnut-loaf/

You don’t need the egg, I think I might have used some chickpea flour in the recipe.

When I was churning this stuff out in industrial quantities for the the freezer (4DC and both working full time) I had a handful of reliable recipes which were easy to vary.

So eg a nut and pulse recipe like the one above in which the nuts and herbs could easily be varied. A more pulse based recipe which used firmer pulses. A Nut and veg recipe, again swapping out nuts, herbs, spices and veg for seasonal options of similar texture.

With two or three basic mixes you can make a range of burgers and loaves with whatever you have to hand. Ditto “shepherds” pie mix - my DC used to love Sarah Brown’s Red Dragon Pie:
https://www.shoestringcottage.com/sarah-browns-red-dragon-pie/

Which I note has been nicked with minor changes by Prue Leith’s site without crediting the original author - mighty bad form from another cookery writer!

Autumn is a good time to experiment with so many nuts, mushrooms and firm textured veg in season.

@C8H10N4O2 you are a wonderful mum ❤️ are your DC veggie to this day ?

I have no idea how that Howlett’s link ended up in the post - it must have been a careless c&p as I was looking at travel jabs :-)

Yes all are veggie but its what they grew up with. Two have non veggie partners but partners have become “semi veg” in the sense that they will happily eat a veggie meal.

They are all 90s babies - tail end millennials. Ready meals for veggies were pretty rare and even tinned pulses were not available in the huge range they are nowadays (I used to look at French supermarkets green with envy at the choice). In effect we had to be organised and do a lot of batch cooking and freezing for mid week meals. Honestly I don’t think I did anything special but from the beginning they ate whatever we ate.

We both grew up on seasonal produce and religious menu planning for cost reasons so never really developed a ready made habit. I’m not sniffy about convenience foods - I use ready made passata, canned beans, ready made tofu/tempeh, frozen veg and would happily buy more if I found some I liked.
When the DC were teens Goodlife appeared with nut burgers and spice bean burgers and I definitely kept some of those in the freezer! I think you can get overly hung up on “cooked from scratch” vs ready mades - the odd frozen dinner never killed anyone as part of a mixed diet with a decent range of plants in it.

@C8H10N4O2 it sounds like you made so much effort for them, it’s so lovely to read that, I know they will always remember how you cared for animals and cared so much for them too ❤️ you have raised lovely caring people !
its interesting isn’t it that we could get some really nice food with nuts etc, then suddenly they disappeared and now it’s too much meat subs. I’ve read many times on here about pub/cafe/restaurant food is not really aimed at veggies now, still I’m not complaining anything is better if it can make people change their outlook.

Honestly don’t run away with the idea that I was supermum or supercook. I was just pretty ordinary and most of my meat eating friends on a budget would describe similar cooking for that time - possibly they had access to more mid week convenience meals than I did.

I wasn’t the mum who made amazing birthday cakes and baked all the biscuits - biscuits came from Tesco and party cakes from CostCo😅 Over time you build up shortcuts and cheats and routines and it gets easier.

I had three advantages

• a DH who didn’t think it was all my job (just as well as I was the main earner with the longer hours)
• we both learned early from our parents and had the DC “helping” as soon as they could reach the counter and so by the time they were secondary school age could do quite a lot for themselves. They all went to uni as competent cooks
• whilst we had the usual fads none of the DC had serious allergies or food issues (two can’t drink milk but nor can I so I don’t count that).

Keep at it, but especially get the DC in the kitchen, even if just at weekends. It feels like a grind in the early years but it does pay dividends. One of the best bits of advice I was ever given for feeding DC was never let it become a drama and never use food as a reward or punishment for behaviour. Looking back I think that advice was golden - hard to follow at times but definitely worth it.

This looks like a nice simple recipe. https://veggieideas.co.uk/nut-cutlets

All the recipes linked in here looked great! I am inspired to branch out!