easy vegetarian walnut pate

[snugglekitty]

This afternoon I was meeting 7j in the park for a picnic lunch, lunch provided by moi. I realized that what I desperately wanted to serve was pear sandwiches with greens, brie, and walnut pate.

I soon discovered that Pemberton Farms does not carry walnut pate. Not to be discouraged, I decided I would make it myself. I looked at some recipes online, but they weren't what I wanted - long ingredients lists, tons of dairy, tofu, or meat, long preparation times - so I decided I would just do it the way that I thought made sense, and if it didn't work out, so be it.



1 c walnuts
3 oz mushrooms (I used half of a six-ounce box, it would be fine with more or fewer)
1/2 medium white onion
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp red cooking wine
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
mustard powder, salt, and ground black pepper to taste

I started by chopping the onion coarsely and heating the olive oil in a small skillet over low heat. Once the oil was hot, I put in the onion. Then I chopped the mushrooms and added them. Finally, I threw in the walnuts, lemon juice, and spices. I let this mixture simmer for about ten minutes. Once the mushrooms and onion were cooked through, I added the butter, for extra richness. (It could easily be ommitted, though, to make this completely vegan.) I stirred the mixture so the melted butter was evenly distributed. Then, I scraped the pan into the blender and added cooking wine. I kept blending until about half of the mixture was finely blended and half was coarse. I used a spatula to get every last bit out and stirred it thoroughly. Delicious!

When I make this again, I think I would include thyme or curry in the seasoning. It would also be good with dried cranberries, I think, but I wouldn't add those until after the blending.



This was terrific. Especially awesome in the sandwich mentioned above.

Comments

[monicaboston.livejournal.com]

Sounds yummy. I'll have to try that--especially with the season of scrambling for no-cook dinners coming up.

[trouble4hire.livejournal.com]

soooo yummy!