Discover crowd-pleasing meat-free treats guaranteed to bring comfort, joy and flavour to your festive table
Celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, Newcastle’s Super Natural Café is at the forefront of the city’s vegetarian and vegan dining scene; specialising in flavourful meat-free and plant-based dishes, served in a cosy and comfortable restaurant, their wonderful menu includes healthy all-day options alongside seasonal specials.
Here, co-owner Andrew Bloomfield offers two easy savoury and sweet recipes perfect for your festive celebrations.
Extra Special Festive Nut Roast
This recipe is so tasty, incredibly cheap to make, very quick and does not require any measuring or special equipment – simply make to your own taste.
Using old stale bread or a cheap loaf from the supermarket, blitz in a food processor or grind down to make breadcrumbs. Fry off a diced onion and add to breadcrumbs.
Add whatever dried or fresh herbs you have to hand – sage, oregano, parsley, thyme and rosemary all work well and add a tablespoon of garlic purée.
Add any nuts and seeds to the mix – make it as festive as you like – chestnuts go nicely. Add in some dried or fresh fruits; try regular dried mixed fruit such as cranberries and sultanas or make it festive with figs!
Add a splash of orange juice or any other festive flavour to the mix (for a boozy treat, try Cointreau or any other alcoholic spirits). Add sufficient vegetable stock to bind everything together using your hands – it should be firm and moist but not wet (read instructions for the stock cubes to get the water ratios correct).
Taste and season, then place into a baking tin and press down firmly. Decorate by adding more nuts, seeds and fruits to the top – gently pressing them down.
Cover in foil and bake at 200C for around 30 minutes. Remove foil and allow to brown for another 5 minutes. Cool or refrigerate before cutting.
Reheat by wrapping in foil and placing in the oven for a few minutes. It also freezes perfectly!
Festive Spiced Fruit Cake Sponge with Whisky Buttercream
This is another recipe that’s full of the flavours of the season, and once again is easy and cheap to make, needing no special equipment.
Combine 700g of self-raising flour and 500g granulated sugar (dark is better). Add 1 heaped tablespoon of any festive spices you want – all spice, nutmeg and ginger are great options.
Mix 500ml of sunflower oil and 800ml water together and gradually stir into the flour and sugar – gently stir with a spoon until you have a smooth (not runny) consistency – discard any left-over oil and water that hasn’t been used.
Add a handful (or more) of any dried fruits, peel and fresh cranberries that you want and gently stir in. Add a splash of whisky or non-alcoholic flavours such as orange juice or cranberry juice and gently stir in alongside a couple of spoonfuls of black treacle or golden syrup, if you like.
Pour into a large, lined baking tin or various smaller ones (or even make muffin size). Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes at 175-180C. Insert a skewer into the cake to check if it’s fully cooked.
That’s the cake made simply using flour, water, sugar and oil – all the other ingredients are up to you!
To make the buttercream top, place around 750g of icing sugar into a mixing bowl and add around 300g of soft (or melted) spread (Vitalite works well). Using a large spoon, simply cream together, adding the butter gradually, until you have a nice smooth and creamy consistency. Add a tiny splash of flavour – whisky, orange juice, cranberry juice etc. and spread evenly over the cake. Very lightly sprinkle some dried spice over the cake for extra flavour and presentation. It’s best to allow it to chill down before cutting.
This will serve 10-15 decent portions, so it’s ideal for a family feast!
