Recipe Results: Vegan Walnut-Mushroom Pate

I had such high hopes for this recipe for Walnut-Mushroom Pate from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook (scroll to bottom of page for recipe).  Toasted walnuts, mushrooms?  What could be wrong with that?

Well, nothing’s wrong with it, but nothing was too right with it, at least not in the batch I made.  It was a pretty nice texture (although with an unfortunate resemblance to what my cat throws up when eating wet food), and an inoffensive flavor, but there just wasn’t enough of it (flavor, that is). 

(Pate on left, which you already knew if you have a cat who eats wet food)

The mushrooms smelled amazing as they cooked before being added to the nuts, and I was anticipating some deliciousness.  Once it was all blended, though, they seemed to disappear.  It was just like…mildly savory walnut fluff.  I’d even tried adding some tamari for some oomph, but no luck. 

We barely picked at it before dinner, and now I have a giant vat of it to try to figure out how to repurpose.

If I were to make again, I think I would change up some of the mushrooms with some stronger flavored ones like shiitake.  I realize the beans that are in it are there to help with texture, but I wonder if reducing them might also up the flavor. 

But I might instead just make Sarah’s favorite recipe, which is not vegan, but still vegetarian and road-tested with approval.  Here’s a link to the one she likes, and the comments she adds about her success with it:

“I find it tastes best served at room temp, and of course is better if made the night before….You can swap out the main vegetables, or the nuts, or the seasonings.  My favorites have been almonds/curry/cauliflower and mushrooms/pecans/fennel.”