FOOD STYLING AND REAL LIFE

VEGGIE PATE

I first made this pate when working as a Chef in the kitchen of a health food store. I replaced the whole wheat flour with spelt flour, and all the ingredients were organic. It was really quiet good and appealed to vegetarians and meat eaters alike. I kind of think of veggie pate as stuffing that you spread. My son has a confirmed allergy to sunflowers and every store bought veggie pate I have come across contains sunflowers seeds. I made this pate with pumpkin seeds, but go ahead and use sunflower seeds if you like. The following recipes makes 2 loaves. When the pate loaves have cooled I divide one loaf in fourths and freeze it for future use. We ate one for lunch the other day with visiting family and it went quickly. I served it with pita bread, sliced onions, tomatoes, avocado and a miso dressing. One thing I could kick myself for is that I used yellow carrot for this recipe instead of orange thus removing the pate's photogenic orange flecks. Oh well! It still taste good.

VEGGIE PATE

• 250 ml / 1 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds
• 125 ml / 1/2 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat flour)
• 125 ml / 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 2.5 ml / 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 125 ml / 1/2 cup canola oil
• 30 ml / 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 potato, peeled and sliced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 1 clove garlic
• 375 ml / 1 1/2 cups water
• 2.5 ml / 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2.5 ml / 1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
• 2.5 ml / 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
• 2.5 ml / 1/2 teaspoon dried savory
• 2.5 ml / 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 2.5 ml / 1/2 teaspoon ground dried mustard

Pre-heat oven to 180 C / 350 F.

Lightly grease 2 loaf pans. In a food processor chop seeds until crumbly. Add remaining ingredients and blend until almost smooth. Pour or spoon into loaf pans and bake in the center of the oven for about one hour. At this point you have a slightly firm but spreadable pate. For a drier pate continue to cook for up to 30 minutes more being careful not to let the pate burn. * Let cool and serve.

*You could also serve this pate warm in thick slices like a vegetarian meatloaf.

Sunflower sprouts, miso dressing, tomato and avocado slices,
and of course the pate all on sliced spelt bread.