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Chestnut, mushroom and sage roast

Chestnuts, mushrooms and lentils with sage and onion, baked on a layer of cranberry and turned out. Two loaves, each for 4. Make it on your cook day and freeze it, ready for Christmas Day.

Plan my cook day

Can you freeze chestnut, mushroom and sage roast?

Yes. Freeze it in portions, one to each container.

How to freeze and defrost it, with the Food Standards Agency’s advice at each step.

The recipe

One batch makes 8 portions.

Ingredients for 8 portions

Method

Prep

  1. Boil the kettle.
  2. Peel onions and chop them finely with celery stick.
  3. Peel and crush garlic clove.
  4. Pulse chestnut mushroom in a food processor until finely chopped.
  5. Pick the leaves from sprig of fresh sage and chop them. Pick the leaves from sprig of fresh sage and keep them whole, for the tins. Pick the leaves from sprig of thyme.

Cook the lentils

  1. Rinse dried red lentils in a sieve, tip them into a pan and pour in water from the kettle. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and the water has gone.
  2. While the lentils simmer, heat the oven to 180°C fan and line two 900g loaf tins or foil loaf trays with baking paper.

Cook the mushrooms

  1. Heat olive oil in your biggest frying pan over a medium heat. Fry the onion and celery for 10 minutes until soft.
  2. Add the mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes until all their liquid has gone.
  3. Stir in the garlic, the chopped sage and the thyme for 1 minute, then take off the heat.

Mix and fill

  1. Crumble chestnuts into your biggest bowl. Whizz white bread into crumbs and add them with ground almonds.
  2. Add the lentils, the mushrooms, dark soy sauce, dijon mustard, salt and black pepper. Mix and mash until it holds together when you squeeze it.
  3. Spread cranberry sauce over the bottom of the tins and lay the whole sage leaves in it.
  4. Press the mix in on top, firmly, right into the corners.

Bake

  1. Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes.
  2. Take off the foil and bake for 15 minutes until firm to the touch.

To eat now

  1. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a board so the cranberry is on top. Cut into thick slices.

How to freeze

  1. cool any warm dishes before putting them in your freezer, says the Food Standards Agency.
  2. Put the lid on the container.

How to defrost

  1. the safest way to defrost food is in the fridge overnight, says the Food Standards Agency.
  2. Heat it in the oven with the lid on until it’s steaming hot all the way through.
  3. it is important that food is cooked to steaming hot throughout, rather than warmed, says the Food Standards Agency.
  4. Leave for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a board so the cranberry is on top. Cut into thick slices.

How we’d cook it, not advice. We don’t check recipes for allergens, and ingredients vary by brand, so check the label on everything you use. Prepare and cook food the way the Food Standards Agency says. Allergens and food safety

Nutrition

Per portion
Energy
402 kcal
Fat
15g
Carbohydrate
51.7g
Protein
13.5g
Nutrition details
Energy
402 kcal
Fat
15g
of which saturates
1.8g
Carbohydrate
51.7g
of which sugars
15.3g
Fibre
9.3g
Protein
13.5g
Salt
2.37g

Estimated from ingredient data.

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For Christmas Day

  • Serve it with Roast potatoes, parsnips and the gravy, which is vegan too.
  • 1 loaf feeds 4 One batch makes 8 portions.
  • Vegan Contains nuts. Check the bread and the cranberry sauce say vegan.

No special kit

  • Works best in a foil tray with a lid Any freezer-safe container does the job too.
  • Everything from one shop Batch cook it with Nomstash and the foil trays with lids go on the same shopping list as the food.

Cook what you already cook

  • Already keep a freezer spreadsheet?

    Paste it in from Excel or Google Sheets, or choose a CSV file, and Nomstash reads it into your stash.

    Bring in my freezer list

Freezing and defrosting safely

The Food Standards Agency’s advice, in their words.

  • Label everything you freeze.

    label food you freeze so you don’t end up with Unidentified Frozen Objects (UFOs)

The rest of the Food Standards Agency’s advice, in their words, is in our freezing and defrosting guide.

Sources

  1. Food Standards Agency How to chill, freeze and defrost food safely gov.uk
  2. Food Standards Agency Cooking your food gov.uk

Last checked . Each quotation on this page was read against the page it links to.

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