FoodSurprise your taste buds with this meatless wonder: How to make a creamy vegan cauliflower pâté

Surprise your taste buds with this meatless wonder: How to make a creamy vegan cauliflower pâté

Homemade pate
Homemade pate
Images source: © Adobe Stock

5:13 AM EST, January 4, 2024

A creamy, delicate, and non-crumbly pâté can please many palates. However, meatless alternatives are still a hard sell for some. Cauliflower instead of pork? It might not sound convincing, but it's well worth a try. Once you taste such a delicacy, its flavor is indescribable.

How can you make vegan pâté uncrumbly and moist?

In the case of meat pâtés, adding fatty bacon or jowl can prevent unwanted crumbliness and contribute to juiciness, but there's no room for these additions in a vegan pâté. Instead, you can experiment with incorporating plant-based fats. But remember, not excessively, for the looser the consistency, the higher the likelihood that the pâté will not form properly during the baking process and remain an amorphous mass.

In the recipe below, I used peanut butter and sesame oil, giving the pâté the desired creamy consistency and enhancing the dish's flavor. A few slightly sharper notes from ingredients like mustard and horseradish shouldn't be overlooked. Additionally, millet groats will lend density to the mixture, enabling you to avoid using eggs.

Vegan cauliflower pâté recipe

Ingredients:

  • 4.23 cups of vegetable broth,
  • 1 large cauliflower,
  • 0.22 lbs millet groats,
  • 2 potatoes,
  • 1 onion,
  • 0.53 oz spicy mustard,
  • 0.53 oz horseradish,
  • 0.53 oz peanut butter,
  • 0.53 oz sesame oil,
  • salt, and freshly ground pepper to taste.
Not only meat can be the base of a pate. Vegetables are also a good choice.
Not only meat can be the base of a pate. Vegetables are also a good choice.© Pexels | Karolina Grabowska

Preparation:

  1. Break the cauliflower into smaller florets. Peel the potatoes and dice them.
  2. Bring the vegetable broth to a boil and add the cauliflower florets and diced potatoes. Simmer the ingredients over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Then, remove the vegetables from the broth.
  3. Cook the millet in a separate pot.
  4. Dice the onion and sauté in a pan. Blend the cooked potatoes, cauliflower, and fried onion.
  5. Add the millet, mustard, horseradish, peanut butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Blend the ingredients thoroughly.
  6. Line a loaf pan with baking paper. Pour the finished mixture into the pan and smooth the top with a spoon.
  7. Bake the pâté in a preheated oven at 356°F for 50 minutes.
  8. Remove the pâté from the oven and allow it to cool.
  9. Once the pâté has cooled, it can be cut into smaller portions.
See also