Cashew, Walnut and Halloumi Roast

Preparation Notes

This can be made 2 or 3 days before you want to eat it.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, very finely chopped
• 1 – 1 ½ tbs olive oil
• 125g vegetarian Halloumi cheese, thinly sliced
• 50g cashews
• 50g fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs
• 100g walnuts
• 50g ground almonds
• 150g cooked basmati rice (about 75g uncooked weight), cooled
• 1 small red pepper, cut into small dice (about ½ cm)
• 2 – 3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
• 1 – 1 ½ tsp fennel seeds, ground
• 75ml hot light stock (3 tsp light stock powder to 75ml water)
• 50g stoned black olives, halved
• to taste salt and pepper
• 2 large free range eggs, beaten

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC / gas mark 5. Grease a 450g loaf tin. Line the base and ends with a single strip of baking paper, leaving an overhang at each end. This will help to ease the loaf out of the tin when cooked.
2. Gently sauté the onion in 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan until soft but not coloured. Remove from the pan and set aside. Using the remaining ½ tbsp olive oil if necessary, turn up the heat and use the same pan to fry the halloumi cheese quickly until brown on both sides. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool, then cut into very small dice (about ½ cm).
3. Grind the cashew nuts with half the walnuts until powdery and add the breadcrumbs. Put the remaining walnuts into a processor and process until very finely chopped.
4. In a large bowl, mix all the nuts together with the onions and halloumi cheese and all the remaining ingredients except the eggs. Season to taste then add the beaten eggs and beat well. Press the mixture into the prepared loaf tin, with a slightly rounded top surface.
5. Now make a bain marie. Put the filled loaf tin in a deep oven dish. Fill the dish with boiling water to half way up the loaf tin. Then put all in the oven to bake.
6. Put into the bain marie and bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until firm. Check after 30 minutes, and if it appears to be browning too fast, cover with foil.
7. When cooked, remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 10 – 20 minutes before turning out. Slice with care using a sharp knife, and wiping the knife clean after each cut.