Artisan Country Veg & Cashew Nut Roast

Every Christmas the kitchen would be taken over by the family vegetarian hand prepping and hand cooking the Cranks’ Brazil & Cashew Nut Roast, from scratch, on the day! It was utterly gorgeous, but a huge overhead in fresh ingredients and lots of messy effort was needed.

I recently asked “Which shop-prepared nut roast would you buy that was closest to the Cranks’, for taste/texture?” The answer I received was that it was the Country Veg & Cashew Nut Roast sold by Holland & Barrett. I did go into Holland & Barrett last year, to see if they had them in stock, but there were none, which is why, last year, I made my own nut roast, from scratch. I had these Artisan nut roasts on my Xmas Food List for this year, but, by a stroke of luck, I spotted that Lidl were selling them! Just £1.99, so I brought one home. I am not entirely sure if I will cook it, but it’s nice to know it’s in the cupboard if I do crave a nut roast….

Last year I made my own (cheats) version of the Cranks nut roast, sourcing all the ingredients and cooking it from scratch…. but had already decided I’d not do that again! This is a plant based nut roast that’ll keep in the cupboard until you’re ready to use it, so worth buying.

How to Cook Artisan Nut Roast

Inside the outer cover there’s a baking dish and a large bag of dried contents. It’s handy they do give you the baking tray (which is a cardboard-type of dish), although I’d be cooking it in a toaster oven probably, so I’d use one of my own dishes.

To make the nut roast, the instructions are:

1. Pour contents of sachet into a bowl. Add 200ml cold water. Mix and let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Transfer mix into the baking tray provided.
3. Preheat the oven to 180C/360F (Gas Mark 4). Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.
4. Allow to cool a little. Slice and serve as desired

Is This a Vegetarian Nut Roast?

The Artisan nut roast is vegetarian and vegan, it’s dairy free and all natural.

If you were looking for gluten free, then there is another flavour from the Artisan brand that fits that brief! Indeed, I nearly bought the gluten free one because the flavour sounded more interesting, but the label of “gluten free” kind of put me off 🙂

Contents:

Chopped cashew nuts 26%, ground peanuts, chopped peanuts, oat flour, breadcrumbs, country vegetables (4.5% : potato, carrot, onion, green beans, green & white cabbage, green & white leek), rusk, red peppers, dried mushrooms, mixed herbs, black pepper, baking powder, salt.

Long Shelf Life

This nut roast has a long shelf life. It’s just dried ingredients – which is great as it means that there’s no pressure to eat it at Christmas, I could even keep it until next Christmas! 🙂

Calories & All That Stuff

One quarter of the nut roast has 258 calories, so the whole nut roast will be over 1000 calories – it’s nuts, they’re never low calorie!

Fat in 100g is 12.4 grams, of which saturated fats are 1.9 grams. Carbohydrates are 24.8g of which sugars are 3g. Fibre 4.2 grams, Protein 9.7g, Salt 0.42 grams.

But, it’s Christmas …. even eating the whole nut loaf doesn’t count because all calories consumed in Christmas week are neutralised by walking past a salad.