Vegetarian Lentil Pâté

On the Prymitywna Kuchnia Facebook fan page I promised a post yesterday. That did not give me more time, only more obligations. Unfortunately, I don’t have any more time and haven’t been cooking much lately, but today I did manage it. So there will definitely be a rhubarb cake recipe (wow, it has been ages since I ate rhubarb) and a sort of prawn stew (I don’t know whether to call it soup or simply a dish).

But not just yet. Now it is time for a dish—or rather, a starter—I prepared for our company Easter Eve celebration. Somehow the name stuck: an eve is an eve, even if it is Easter. Anyway, this year we called our office Easter get-together “Eve”. And since it was during the fast, I made a vegetarian pâté. For the first time in my life. My first time at Easter, and also the first time I had eaten one.

Honestly, it didn’t surprise me. I mean, I had hoped it would taste like pâté and be a sort of “soya sausage” (I know, because I was once vegetarian for a year: it tastes like a sausage, but it is soya), in other words very much like meat pâté. If you are under that illusion, stop right there.

This is meatless pâté. Quite a predicament of a pâté, in fact: pâté without meat 😉 But that doesn’t mean it is nasty or tastes bad. It simply isn’t pâté, isn’t meat pâté; it is simply a very good vegetarian starter. It tastes wonderful, although it isn’t pâté. So it is worth trying. I recommend it, even to people as carnivorous as I am. Although with that sort of person, you’d better not say “pâté”, but rather “I’ve got a lovely vegetable starter” 🙂 I recommend it.

Recipe details:

Preparation time: about 35 minutes

Baking time: 60 minutes

Baking temperature: 200 degrees Celsius

Serves: lots of portions (the three tins shown in the photos)

Calories: type lentils into Google, then sunflower seeds; oh, it has some 😛

Ingredients for a special lentil pâté:

• 0.5 kg green lentils 
• 3 shallots 
• 1 leek
• 2 – 3 medium-sized carrots
• 100 grams sunflower seeds
• 3 hen’s eggs
• 3 cloves garlic
• 5 tablespoons tomato purée concentrate
• 3 teaspoons red curry
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon red paprika
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil

Vegetarian pâté recipe:

First I toasted the cumin in a dry frying pan, tipped it into a bowl and crushed it with a teaspoon. It smells wonderful. Then I toasted the sunflower seeds in the pan until golden (over a low “flame”, on my induction hob at 4 on a scale of 1 – 10). I added them to the bowl with the cumin.

I put water on for the chickpeas. Once it boiled, I added half a kilogram of chickpeas and cooked them for about 30 minutes (it is best to check the instructions on the chickpea packet).

I finely chopped the leek and shallot and grated the carrots on a medium grater.

I heated a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan and fried the shallot and leek. Once they were translucent, I added the carrots. I fried everything together for about 3 – 4 minutes. Then I added 3 teaspoons of red curry paste and 5 tablespoons of tomato purée concentrate. I poured in a little water and mixed thoroughly. I fried it briefly.

I transferred all the prepared ingredients—the cooked chickpeas, vegetables fried with curry and tomato concentrate, sunflower seeds and cumin—to a deep bowl. I added three hen’s eggs.

I blended everything thoroughly (really thoroughly, for about 10 minutes). I transferred the mixture into 3 tins previously greased with olive oil. I baked it at 200 degrees Celsius for about 55 – 60 minutes, until a skewer came out clean. After baking, I let it cool. The vegetarian lentil pâté was ready. Enjoy.

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