Raw Italian Stuffed Peppers with Sausage Pate (& Raw Italian Pate Collard Wraps)

So, it is late August. We moved back to Toronto at the beginning of August. Our stuff from Houston arrived, and our stuff we squirrelled away in my brother’s basement will be arriving this weekend. Unfortunately, one key link remains broken: the internet. We have been waiting for our internet to be installed for 3 weeks now.

I have internet through my cellphone but otherwise, our tap into the internet is dry. As such, I am *still* relying on oldie-but-goodie recipes I photographed earlier, lurking in my drafts, waiting for the right moment to share.

This was a delicious nut pate I made when I had access to fresh herbs in my garden. While I am not a fan of raw pates, I will concede that I wasn’t trying to make a pate with this meal. That is what happens when you over-process nut meat! I was aiming for nut-based Italian sausage crumbles, but with a few too many whirls with the food processor, it turned into a delicious, chunky spread instead.

This is no bland pate, though. First of all, I wanted to lighten up the nut meat by adding some mushrooms.  I used oyster mushrooms because they have a very mild flavour and I dare say you couldn’t taste them anyhow. I pulsed the nuts (pecans and Brazil nuts) with a handful of fresh herbs: rosemary, basil, thyme and sage. It was the last-minute addition of sun-dried tomatoes that added not only a great burst of flavour, but also turned my sausage crumbles into a pate.

There are countless ways to enjoy this spread and I originally ate it solo, stuffed into a bell pepper. For leftovers, I smeared it into a collard wrap topped with assorted spiralized or thinly sliced vegetables (zucchini, beet, carrot, cabbage) and a beautiful sprout garnish. I almost didn’t photograph the haphazard (leftover) collard wraps, but Rob urged me to reconsider. They were definitely pretty, too, and mighty tasty.

Enjoy!

I am sharing this with Shaheen’s Mellow Yellow challenge, Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck and Simple and In Season.

Raw Italian Stuffed Peppers with Sausage Pate

1 clove garlic
1/2 cup Brazil nuts
1/4 cup pecans
3 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in water if dry
1/2 cup mushrooms (I used oyster mushrooms)
1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1.5 tsp low-sodium tamari
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tbsp mix of fresh sage, oregano, thyme, rosemary
1-2 small red peppers, halved lengthwise

1. Pulse garlic and nuts in food processor fitted with the S-blade until they are coarse crumbs. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and pulse until roughly chopped. Add the remainder of the ingredients and pulse until you reach your desired consistency. If you are like me, it eventually became a pate. To keep it more crumble-like, I think the mushrooms need to be pulsed separately and folded into the crumbly nuts afterwards.

2. Use pate to stuff 1-2 small red peppers, or use it in a wrap, smeared on crackers, a dip for fresh veggies, etc.

Serves 2.

Raw Italian Pate Collard Wraps

1 recipe sausage pate (see above)
1 zucchini, spiralized
1 golden beet, spiralized
1 carrot, spiralized
1 cup thinly sliced cabbage
1 cup sprouts (I used sunflower sprouts)
6 small collard leaves, destemmed

1. Clean your collard leaf. Place 2 tbsp of pate in the middle of the leaf and top with the vegetables and sprouts. Wrap and eat!

Serves 2.