Apologies for the two week absence.  There was an incident with the watering can, my partner and my laptop.  They all converged and the result wasn’t a winning affair…

So meanwhile, the last recipe may have tasted as good as this one, but visually veggie pâté is a much easier sell for almost everyone (except for those of us who love greens in all their shapes, forms and mushes – but yes, I concede, this is a minority.)  This is a basic all-purpose veggie-centric spread that works beautifully on crackers, toast, in sammiches or pan-fried and crumbled on top of a salad.  A work colleague who sampled it asked for the recipe – so here it is.

Yield: an 8”x8” pan

What you need:

• 4 cups cooked vegetables (you can use the leftovers from making stock, or whatever steamed veggies remain from the night before.  Avoid green veggies for appearance and textural reasons, stick to stuff like cabbage, mushrooms, parsnip, leek, carrot, celeriac, leek, onion, etc.)
• 1-1/4 cups raw sunflower seeds, as coarsely or finely ground as you like as long as you haven’t turned them to butter
• 1/4 cup kasha, ground (or whole wheat flour, or buckwheat flour)
• 1/4 cup rolled oats or steel-cut oats, ground (or more whole wheat flour, or oat bran, or wheat bran)
• 1 raw onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons sausage spice (a mix of 5-10 different spices including sage, pepper, paprika and nutmeg – there are lots of different recipes bouncing around the net – I like the one from Myoko Schinner’s Vegan Pantry.  Experiment ’til you find one you like and then make lots of it since it’s useful for making seitan and spreads.)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (or other neutral oil)
• 2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons red miso
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional, but suggested)

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the ground sunflower seeds, kasha and oats (or flour).
3. In the work bowl of a food processor, whirl around the cooked vegetables, onion, sausage spice, paprika, oil, tamari, miso and nutritional yeast until a smooth paste results.  Stop every once in a while to scrape down the sides.
4. Transfer the slurry to the bowl and mix with the dry ingredients.
5. Press the mixture into a glass or ceramic 8″x8″ pan.  You can oil the pan if desired, but it isn’t absolutely necessary.
6. Bake for 40 minutes and let cool completely before cutting into squares for serving or storage.  While this is best fresh, it does freeze very well too.