Some of us are aiming to have a green and cruelty-free Christmas and will not be cooking a turkey or any other bird to eat on the big day. Others may be happy to follow tradition but may have guests or family members who are vegetarian or vegan.
Not eating meat or dairy products is a great way to drastically reduce your carbon footprint as well as having a healthier and cheaper diet. It also removes you from the cruel business of raising and killing animals for food... and as part of my meat inspection training, I worked in several abattoirs and have witnessed for myself what happens.
So to help you replace that unhappy fowl, I am offering you a wonderfully flexible recipe for a nutloaf; something I make about once a week as it's a great way to use up old food, far better than throwing it away or even putting it on the compost heap!
Gather together your 'dry' ingredients: breadcrumbs, peanut butter, chopped nuts, seeds, grated carrot, chopped onion... plus optional cooked rice, left-over pasta, sad mashed potato, spare cooked cauliflower, uneaten bulgar wheat, diced sweet pepper etc etc (what's in your fridge?) and 'wet' ingredients, such as tomatoes (fresh or tinned), cooked spinach, leftover soup or stew, baked beans, red wine and optional egg. Seasoning can include soy sauce, herbs, mustard, paprika, bouillon, or whatever takes your fancy.
First mix a dollop of peanut butter into the breadcrumbs, wiping them together so they are really well mixed. Then add the dry ingredients and mix well so you have a colourful bowlful. Then add the moister ingredients which help stick the crumbly bits together and mix well. If you put a lot of wet ingredients, your nutloaf will be very close textured and dense, if only a few, the texture will be more open and crumbly when finished.
Grease a baking tin or dish with margarine or oil, and I sprinkle a few sunflower seeds (homegrown of course!) into the bowl where they stick to the fat and help the loaf turn out more easily as well as look pretty! Spoon the mix into the container and push it down firmly with a fork, making the top as flat as possible. I cook it initially in the microwave to heat it all the way through, and then turn it out onto a baking tray and pop it in the (fossil fuel gas) oven to crisp the outside and cook it through. The nutloaf mix can also be made into burgers and grilled or fried if you prefer.
You'll notice no weights, temperatures and times in this guide to making my nutloaf, because it is totally up to you what you put in, as it's adaptable to your preferences and what food you have available. The breadcrumbs and peanut butter are the base... the rest is optional!
I also enjoy doing creative things like a bi-coloured loaf, with a layer of mix with tomato, grated carrot and red pepper, and a layer of the mix with spinach and unloved broccoli florets. For Christmas you could try putting in a portion of stuffing into the centre as you put it into the tin, or a layer of cranberries. Be creative, have fun making it and enjoy eating it 'with all the trimmings' as part of a healthy Christmas meal.
For more vegetarian ideas, go to the Vegetarian Society. I'm not a member but have been veggie for over 20 years and feel really good about my lower impact and reduced-cruelty lifestyle.
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