Saturday 10 February 2018

Walnut Paste or Meat - Tuna Fish Substitute


Greetings!

I saw a few recipes online talking about "Taco Meat" using walnuts and it interested me. This recipe is not like the ones I saw because they included ingredients like sundried tomatoes and whatever else. I decided to just use my usual go to ingredients for practically everything I make and was pleasantly surprised by how DELICIOUS this nut meat (or paste) is!!!!!!!!! I love it combined with the flavours of cucumber, tomato and watercress especially.

Trust me, it's worth a try! It is now my favorite salad dressing or salad companion and tastes great with chickpea flatbread or tortillas or in a sandwich with homemade bean burgers/patties. Honestly because of the lime and red onion flavour boost, it tastes just like tunafish! I am serious - although it has been so long since I had tunafish that me saying so is pretty laughable. Still it even looks like it. So instead of making tuna sandwiches, whip up a batch of this walnut paste and fulljoy!

Now the key to this recipe is not to over-blend so that it is fine and grainy but not too chunky.  You can use a mini chopper like a mini blender, regular blender or the small cup of the Nutribullet. You want to pulse for a bit and not blend it too long.




You will need:

1 cup walnuts (soaked for a few hours)
1/8 cup water
1 small clove garlic or to reduce the strong garlic breath, use two dashes of garlic powder instead
1/4 a small red onion (white onion will not give the same flavor but it can be used)
1 leaf of chive (optional)
1 small lime juice extracted or at least 1 tbsp juice I estimate
2 pinches pink/sea salt
2 pinches dried cilantro leaves
2 pinches dried basil leaves
1 splash Braggs soy sauce (optional)
Drizzle (1.5 tsp) of cold pressed coconut oil (or oil of your choice)
1 dash of nutritional yeast  (1/2 tbsp) (optional but if you have it, use it)

To get the full seafood taste try adding a dash of Braggs kelp seasoning.

Method:

Grate the clove of garlic and chop the onion and chive into smaller bits to help blending. Also break up the walnuts into smaller pieces after draining water.
Combine everything in blender cup.
Pulse ingredients in mini food processor or blender until a fine grainy texture arises. If you have problems blending, stop and use a spoon to push it down. You can add a little tip of water as needed. you can decide how wet or dry you want it to be but ideally aim for the texture shown in the pictures.
The aim is to blend until everything is broken down into a paste.
Using the Nutribullet blend until it stops moving, remove, shake everything to the bottom and blend again two more times and that should be fine.
Store in a glass jar and consume within a week.
The more lime and onion the nicer the flavor. Be careful not to add too much salt because it will take over the flavour of everything with the lime!


It's a great addition for those who are seeking to eat more raw meals daily. Try the salad!

2 tomatoes
1 cucumber
2 leaves of greens like kale or pakchoi
1/2 bell pepper
parsley
pumpkin or hemp seeds
2 dollops of walnut paste
olives



If you want to make the cucumber sandwiches as shown below, just slice some cucumbers into long thick slices, slice some tomatoes into circles and add a few sprigs of watercress. Spread the walnut paste onto the cucumber then layer with tomato and watercress.
Yumm! Ital goodness.




For breakfast for my kingman I make a sandwich with the walnut paste, a chickpea patty, tomato or cucumber. He loves it as do I. Our yutes love it on crackers.

Please tag me on Instagram @italpeople so I can share your pictures if you try this versatile delicious, recipe.

*Recipe updated 1/8/20*

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