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When I cook, I’m constantly grazing on whatever I’m making, and that’s how I discovered this raw walnut onion pate.
Hang on. Paté? What the heck is paté? (It’s said pat-ay, in case you were wondering.)
I know I sure asked that question when I first came across recipes for raw nut patés.
I always think of duck livers and tripe whenever I heard the word “paté”.
Not exactly the most appealing of mental images, especially for someone who’s mostly vegan. Eeeeew.
So, let me clear this one up for you.
A paté is basically a smooshy paste. Normally it’s made with ground meat and fat, mixed with herbs, spices and even veggies to make a tasty spreadable paste, sometimes cooked, sometimes chilled.
In the case of a raw vegan paté, it uses nuts and vegetables as the “meaty” base, along with herbs and spices for extra flavour.
Paté is normally used in sandwiches, on crackers or served on bread.
So, back to how I discovered this recipe.
So I was making the filling mixture for my amazingly delicious vegan sausage rolls, and as is my way, I licked the spoon.
And it kind of tasted nice. So nice in fact that I had to make the spoon dirty again so I could lick it again.
And then I realised that everything in the mix was perfectly safe to eat raw, it had just never occurred to me before to try it.
I think I’d always saved every last precious drop of mix for making the sausage rolls that the kids love so much.
But now they have competition.
I now make sure there’s always “accidentally” a bit leftover so I can claim it for myself.
That, or I just eat it as I go. Cooks prerogative.
It’s delicious on raw flax crackers, delightful on carrot sticks and utterly decadent straight off the spoon.
I should warn you, it does have a reasonable tang from the raw onion. So if you’re not a big fan of the taste of raw onion, take it slowly. Or put less onion in.
And I’m not normally big on raw onion or raw garlic, but there’s something about the bold combination of flavours in this raw walnut onion pate that really does it for me.
(At least there’s lots of parsley in it help with the after-breath.)
If you’re looking for other ways to use it up (because the recipe does make quite a bit), you can chuck it in a wrap with your favourite salad greens and fresh veggies for a quick and tasty snack.
Or use it to make vegan dim-sims.
If you’ve never lived in Australia, you’ve probably missed out on the pleasure of a greasy dim-sim.
Dim-sims are a Chinese-inspired snack that was invented in Melbourne in the 1940s, and consist of meat and veggies wrapped in a dumpling-style pastry and either steamed or deep-fried.
Mmmmm, greasy fast-food. Meh, not so much.
But if you’re hankering after a dim-sim hit, this raw walnut onion pate is a great way to create a healthier, vegan version.
Just wrap some in a rice-paper wrap, or even get yourself some authentic dim-sim wrappers, and steam them up. My kids love them.
Or, you can just use my time-honoured approach and eat the mix straight off a spoon.
Here’s all the stuff you need to know to make some of this awesome paté for yourself.
