Walnut You Like To Know

So here us where you have to suffer with my love of cheesy puns.


This post has been inspired by my friend K, who put me up to the challenge of making something with her ginormous bag of walnuts that had this odd smokey flavor. Here is what I came up with.

Walnut Taco Filling

1 1/2 c. Ground walnuts
1 1/2 tsp. Cumin
3/4 tsp. Coriander
2 tbsp. Soy sauce
Pinch of cayenne

The walnuts should be ground to have a chunky texture. Mix all ingredients together and set aside or refrigerate to let the flavors absorb. Then serve to your little hearts content. This recipe is credited to Sparks Recipes.

Next up mushroom walnut pate from Vegcooking.

Mushroom Walnut Pate

1/4 c. Water

3 -4 c. Sliced fresh mushrooms

1/2 Sliced medium onion

2 Minced cloves of garlic

1 c. Mashed firm tofu

1/2 c. Walnuts

1/4 tsp. Salt

1/4 tsp. Black pepper

1 Chopped or sliced green bell pepper

Cook mushrooms, onion and garlic in water until soft. Combine the veggies and tofu in a blender until all blendy and smooth. Add walnuts, salt and pepper and do the blendy thing again until very, very smooth. Let chill in the fridge before serving. Top with some green pepper. Vegcooking recommends serving it with french bread and green pepper. K ate it with crackers or veggies but prefered it alone. Eat it however you fancy.

This recipe is the only one where the walnut smokiness was not eliminated or enhanced. But hey, I am sure non smoky walnuts would do the trick.

Candied Walnuts

2 c. Walnuts

1/4 c. Soy Milk

1 tsp. Cinnamon

3 tbsp. Margarine (vegan variety of course)

1/2 c. Sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla Powder

Heat everything but walnuts until nice and thick. Mix with walnuts until well coated. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Mine turned out a little runny but yummy (I think it would be great over soy vanilla ice cream). The recipe is approximate, feel free to play with measurements.

These lovelies took a little bit of trial and error. When I found the Tofu-Walnut 'Meatballs' recipe I knew I wanted to try my mom's style swedish meatballs. I loved them as a kid and have made them plenty of times with fake "meaty" (ie. tvp or store bought variety) meatballs.
Well, the slight problem is these 'meatballs' are not a durable and a lot softer then the other variety. So when I made them to follow mom's recipe they turned into the bolognese sauce you see below. It also probably did not help that they needed to bake it the sauce where i tried to make them in my ceramic pot on the stove. Either way tasted good though. This here is the tweaked version of the original recipe.

Glazed Swedish 'Meatballs'

Tofu-Walnut 'Meatballs

(I pretty much followed these to a tee from the site above)

2 c. Chopped walnuts

1 Chopped onion

1 Shredded carrot

1 Chopped green pepper

4 Chopped cloves of garlic

Olive oil

12 oz. Cubed soft tofu

Sesame oil

1 tbsp. Spicy mustard

1 tsp. Oregano

1 tsp. Basil

2 c. Bread crumbs*

Sauté walnuts, onion, carrot, pepper, and garlic in olive oil. In a large bowl, mix cubes of soft tofu with sesame oil, mustard, oregano, and basil and sauté ingredients. Add enough bread crumbs to make a moldable mixture. Shape into balls and sauté. Do not be afraid to use extra olive oil to saute these. They need it to make them firmer. This recipe made about 30 balls.

*I made my own bread crumbs by lightly toasting some bread then grinding it in a blender. About a half loaf will give you 2 cups.

Swedish Glaze

(adapted from my mom's swedish meatball recipe)

1 c. Organic ketchup

5 tbsp. Worstershire sause*

1 tbsp. Brown rice syrup

1-2 tbsp. Brown sugar

2 tbsp. White vinegar

Bring ingredients to a boil and then simmer a few minutes or throw in the microwave for awhile. Brush or pour glazed on 'meatballs' Throw them in your toaster oven or, if you are fortunate enough, your conventional oven and bake for 15 minutes until brown.

*Since I am unable to get vegan worstershire sauce here I used this recipe from cooking with rock stars. It is superb.

Now this be the bolognese sauce made on, as my mom would call me, a beautiful accident. Basically go through the painstaking process of making the delicious tofu-walnut meatballs. Then immerse them in swedish meatball sauce and cook until mushy :)
I will post the recipe for the actual swedish meatballs when I can make them properly and get my hands of fake meatballs that will hold together in liquid. But feel free to contact me sooner if you want to make this "beautiful mishap" or a variation of it and i can tell you what i used.