If you make your own strained almond (or other nut) milk, then you know that nut meal multiplies quickly and that the freezer can only hold so much of it before you run out of space for other stuff. I’m therefore eternally looking for things to do with nut mulch since I abhor wasting food.

That brings us to veggie pâté, the food of champions. It works in chunks on its own. In chunks stuffed in a sandwich. Or spread on toast for breakfast; crackers and veggies for a snack; with more toast for lunch. It even works fried up in a cast iron pan with a healthy helping of coconut oil alongside some steamed greens as a light main course.

Over the years I’ve made many different recipes, most of them quite good, but this is the one I return to again and again and again because it’s easy and doesn’t involve multiple steps or pre-sautéing of any of the ingredients – although you can make it fancier if you have the inclination. It’s also deliciously addictive to pretty much everyone.

What you need:

• 2 cups almond or nut milk mulch (ground sunflower seeds, ground walnuts or the pulp leftover from juicing bean sprouts will also work)
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (if you want to make it GF, quinoa or buckwheat flour would work well)
• 1/4 cup flax seed, ground coarsely
• 1 tsp powdered thyme
• 1 tsp powdered sage
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp salt (you may want less, I like mine quite salty)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 heaping tbsp red miso
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup water or vegetable broth, divided (if you use a salted broth, cut the salt)

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 9’’x5’’ baking dish.
2. Mix the nut mulch, nutritional yeast, flour, flax meal spices and salt in a bowl.
3. Add olive oil to the bowl.
4. In a blender or magic bullet, place the onion, garlic, miso, lemon juice and 1/2 cup of the water or broth. Process until smooth and then add to the bowl.
5. Add the last half a cup of water to the bowl and mix everything together until evenly textured throughout.
6. Press evenly into the pan and bake for 45 minutes (if you like it mushy) to 60 minutes (if you like it stiffer-textured with a bit of an outside crust; as you can see, I’m a 60-minute-girl).
7. Try and let it cool before you dig in so that it firms up a bit.

Variations to try:

1. Use a mixture of roasted ground nuts in place of the almond mulch.
2. Add a food-processed carrot to the mix.
3. Add some leftover mashed sweet potato or butternut squash.
4. Replace the raw garlic with a whole head of roasted garlic.
5. Cut out the garlic and use two onions but caramelize them in a cast-iron pan and deglaze with a bit of white wine before adding to the blender.