Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

This pâté is deliciously garlicky, with a lovely smoked flavour, in addition to the deeply savoury mushroom flavour. It’s also a good source of protein, and is delightful when eaten on toast, crackers, or slices of fresh bread. I used shiitake mushrooms for this, but other mushrooms would work too. This contains a whole bulb of roasted garlic, which may seem like a lot, but roasting the garlic really mellows the flavour. It also adds a wonderful nuttiness and creamy texture to the pâté too

Yield: 450g Pâté Cook time: 40 minutes

For the roasted garlic, you’ll need;

1. One large bulb of garlic
2. One teaspoon of oil
3. A pinch of salt and pepper

For the rest of the pâté, you’ll need;

1. 15g plant-based butter, plus more to top the pâté with, but this step is optional
2. 300g shiitake mushrooms, sliced
3. 200g smoked tofu, diced
4. Two tablespoons of nutritional yeast
5. One teaspoon of tarragon
6. Two tablespoons of oil
7. Salt and black pepper, to taste

Method;

• Start by roasting the garlic. Remove any loose skin from the bulb, then slice it in half horizontally. Drizzle over the oil and sprinkle over a pinch of salt and black pepper. Loosely wrap the garlic in foil and then roast it at 200°C for 30-40 minutes, once roasted, leave it to cool to room temperature
• Next heat the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Once it’s melted, add in the sliced shiitake mushrooms and season with a pinch of salt. Give the mushrooms ten minutes to fry, stirring occasionally. Once cooked, remove them from the heat and leave them to cool to room temperature
• Once the garlic and mushrooms have cooled down, add them into a food processor along with the smoked tofu, nutritional yeast, tarragon, oil, and then season to taste with salt and black pepper. Blend until you have a smooth mixture, once blended store the pâté in an airtight container in the fridge

As an optional final step, melt another tablespoon of dairy-free butter and top the pâté with it. Put the pâté back into the fridge and it will be ready to serve once the butter has solidified