A savoury christmas crumble, chestnuts in the base and walnuts in the topping. One of the recipes from the Vegetarian Christmas meal plan.

Savoury Vegan Walnut and Chestnut Crumble

Base mixture

Priced at Asda December 2018

100g red cabbage, chopped not in the shops when priced, white cabbage is 65p/kg, 6p
an onion, chopped, 75p/kg, 7p
a largish carrot, chopped, 65p/kg, 7p (no need to peel if it is in good condition)
30g chestnuts, crumbled, £1.50/180g, 25p
2 tbslp tomato puree,37p/200g, 6p
125ml water

Topping

60g oats, kg/75p, 4p
60g flour, sr or plain, 1.5kg/45p, 2p
60g veg oil, £1.09/litre, 7p
30g walnuts, £2.22/200g, 33p
quarter tsp each of salt and pepper

Total cost 97p
Cost per serving (2) 48p

Total nutrition 1288 calories, 122g carbs, 82g fat, 24g protein
Nutrition per serving (2) 644 calories, 61g carbs, 41g fat, 12g protein

First make the base. Saute the cabbage, onion and carrot until cooked through. Include a bay leaf if you have one. Add 2 tsp tomato puree, the chestnuts, seasoning and 125ml water. Stir it all together very well. There needs to be a good amount of water in there, or the finished crumble will be dry. Place the vegetables in an oven proof dish

Now make the topping. Mix together the flour, oil, oats and walnuts. Pile on top of the veg and bake in a moderate oven for 30-40 minutes until golden.

Serve with Buttery mashed potatoes. I wouldn’t normally serve this with potatoes as it is quite filling. If you have any other vegetables available, use those.

Verdict

This tastes amazingly like the classic vegetable crumble. Blindfold, I couldn’t have told the difference! Wasn’t expecting that!

So, given that, it tastes wonderful.

Variations

I had run out of walnuts, so used almonds in the topping which were wonderfully crunchy. I also can’t find any red cabbage at the time of writing, so used white cabbage. Lots of people have asked about subbing something else for the red cabbage as they don’t like it. Firm white cabbage is the perfect substitute.

Use 300-400g of any firm, probably root, vegetables for the base. I would add a good handful of ordinary mushrooms; leave out the tomato for a different flavour;  try fennel, celery and onion, with maybe some fennel seeds in the base or topping; parsnip, swede and mushroom or simply tip in 400g of mixed frozen veg (no need to cook the frozen veg first)

Any nuts at all can be used in the topping.