Stuck for a vegan Christmas starter? These smoked ‘salmon’ and ‘cream cheese’ canapés will go down a treat

Smoked ‘salmon’ with ‘cream cheese’, capers and dill canapés

Serves 6

Cooks in: 20 minutes
Difficulty: 2/10
GFO: If gluten-free bread is used

Ingredients

For the smoked ‘salmon’

• 440ml vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp miso paste
• 3 tbsp sweet smoked paprika
• 1 large sheet of nori
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp smoked sea salt (or regular sea salt)
• juice of 1 lemon
• 5 large carrots, peeled

For the ‘cream cheese’

• 125g raw cashew nuts
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• pinch of sea salt and white pepper
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 110ml filtered water

To serve

• 6 slices of toasted rye bread (or gluten-free bread), cut into small pieces for canapés
• lemon slices
• 3 tbsp capers
• small handful of fresh dill

Method

1. Place all the smoked ‘salmon’ ingredients except the carrots into a medium saucepan, bring to the boil, then lower to a simmer for 10 minutes to let the flavours infuse.
2. While the broth is cooking, use a peeler to slice the carrots into long ribbons and place them in a large heatproof bowl.
3. Pour the broth through a sieve directly over the carrots into the bowl. This will lightly cook them. When the broth has cooled, cover the bowl with cling film or place the mixture into sterilised jars. Refrigerate for at least a day (or up to seven days). The broth acts as a marinade.
4. To make the ‘cream cheese’, soak the nuts in boiling water for 15 minutes. Drain away the soaking water and tip the nuts into a blender cup with the rest of the ingredients. Simply blitz everything until smooth, then use straight away or store in the fridge for 3-4 days.
5. To serve, generously spread the ‘cream cheese’ onto pieces of toasted bread, top with the smoked ‘salmon’ (drained of marinade), then top with lemon, capers and dill.

Extracted from Vegan Christmas by Gaz Oakley (Quadrille). Photography © Simon Smith and Peter O’Sullivan.