Veggie Christmas

Christmas is sometimes a challenging time for veggies. Nut roast, anyone? For the past couple of years I have opted to avoid the packet bake mixes and frozen textured vegetable protein hunks in favour of a more homemade alternative.

So, anyway, before I’m finished with the whole batch, I thought I’d share my Christmas lunch recipe.

Chestnut and apple savoury crumble

You will need:
1 cooking apple
Some chestnuts
Some stilton
Some sunflower seeds
Some pumpkin seeds
Some chopped hazelnuts
Some butter (enough for a crumble mix)
Some plain flour (enough for a crumble mix)
Pepper for seasoning
A sprig or two of thyme

1. Chop the apple into a bowl (suitable for baking) chop in the chestnuts. You’ll probably need about 50:50 apples and chestnuts – and if they’re fresh you’ll need to peel them.
2. Stick in the thyme and some pepper, and jumble around so it’s well mixed. Crumble the Stilton on top.
3. In a separate bowl, kneed the butter and flour together until you get a breadcrumb consistency. Add in the seeds and chopped nuts and mid well.
4. Stick the crumble mix on top of the chestnut mixture and whack into an oven heated to about 180 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Depending on the apple you choose, it can be quite sweet so goes well with parsnips and sweet potato. Personally, I thought it worked well – although I might have added a bit more cheese and a bit less crumble.