Mushroom Walnut Pate

My original plan was to use THIS RECIPE. I'm not, however, married to the raw movement. I don't care for raw mushrooms, and I forgot to soak the walnuts.

I knew I could find a cooked pate recipe. I found one in American Wholefoods Cuisine by the Goldbecks, and this recipe, which apparently comes from Veganomicon, which I also own. So I combined the two and changed some things. Which drives my husband crazy, that I never follow a recipe straight-up the first time. (Not totally true, but 99% time true.)

But here's the thing. The idea of putting nutritional yeast and sunflower seeds, which are in the Goldbeck recipe, sounded good. So I subbed some of the walnuts in the Veganomicon recipe for sunflower seeds. And then, I didn't have enough mushrooms. Rather than go out and buy more, I added more cannellini beans. And I increased the vinegar and decreased the salt, mostly because my eyesight is getting bad and I misread the recipe.

So here it is:

Mushroom Walnut Pate
1 c. onion, chopped
1 T canola oil
10 oz mushrooms, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried tarragon
3/4 cup walnuts, toasted
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup cannellini beans, drained
1 T. nutritional yeast
1 T. balsamic vinegar
1 T. olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
pepper
small amount of cold water

Saute the onion in the canola oil until soft and translucent. Add the thyme, tarragon, salt, pepper, and garlic. Saute a minute. Add the mushrooms, and saute 10 mins, or until they give up their juices.

In the meantime, lightly toast the walnuts. After toasted, put them in the food processor with the nutritional yeast and sunflower seeds. Process until ground into a meal.

Add beans, olive oil, vinegar, and mushroom mix to the nuts in the blender. Process until smooth, adding water by the tablespoon to get a smooth consistency. Chill before using. Spread on bread or crackers.