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Almond pâté is a tried and true entertaining dish around these parts. It's a dead-simple, totally tasty way to swiftly change nearly any given omnivore's mind about what vegan food can taste (and look) like. Turns out, if you replace the liquid in the recipe with a little extra-firm tofu, you get a rich, salty dough stiff enough to be shaped into a log and rolled in all kinds of great garnishes.
This particular dish was inspired by a roasted grape and beet salad from New Vegetarian featuring medallions of dairy cheese rolled in pistachio crumbs. One very successful little almond pâté experiment later, and there's no doubt about how to substitute for anything similar in the future. My log was rolled in not only pistachio crumbs, but also pink peppercorns for flecks of rosy color and a little extra spice.
For the crostini that went to dinner, toasted baguette slices were topped with baby arugula tossed in an apple-ginger dressing (straight from that salad recipe in New Vegetarian), then topped with slices of the almond pâté log and finished off with tender roasted grapes. So nice.
Almond Pâté Log with Pistachios and Pink Peppercorns
yields about 16 servings, adapted from here (post includes original credit links)
1/4 cup roasted and salted pistachio meats
2 tsp pink peppercorns
150 g blanched almond meal
1/2 cup crumbled extra-firm tofu
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 TBSP canola or grape seed oil
1 small clove garlic, peeled
1 tsp fine sea or kosher salt
Heat oven to 350.
In a food processor, process pistachios to medium-coarse crumbs. Add peppercorns and pulse a few times to break up gently. Spread mixture out onto a pie plate and set aside.
Wipe out processor bowl, wipe off blade, and reassemble. Add all remaining ingredients to processor and process until smooth. Lay out a piece of aluminum foil large enough to roll the log in. Remove processor blade, scrape off, and use your hands to scoop dough from processor bowl. Shape into a log roughly two and a half inches thick and six inches long. Roll log slowly in pistachio crumbs, pressing down very gently as you go to encourage cohesion, then use your hands to pat the mixture onto the exposed ends (and any missed spots you may have). Transfer to bottom edge of foil, roll up, fold in ends, and bake 40 minutes.
Note that the log is softer when warm. If you prefer to spread the pâté, serve a little warm. To slice, let cool before serving. To get the very cleanest slices, chill before cutting. Best served at room temperature, give or take.
And there was dessert. Here, the German apple cake from The Joy of Vegan Baking, wherein sliced figs were swapped for the called-for sliced apples. The very gentle sweetness of this cake is one of the reasons I love it, but for entertaining purposes, it could've used a little drizzle of something to help it feel more decadent. Pretty nice, nevertheless.
And that brings us right into meteorological fall. Expect more celebrations of that soon.