Lentil Loaf

A perfect roast dinner staple for the vegetarians in your life! This is a vegetable-packed recipe that won’t leave you missing meat in your Christmas dinner.

Recipe: Lentil Loaf

Prep and cooking time: 45 mins

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 small carrots, diced
• 2 sticks celery, roughly chopped
• 200g button mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 3 leaves sage, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp dried (or fresh) parsley
• 1 tsp dried rosemary, or 2 fresh sprigs, finely diced
• 450g cooked lentils (precooked packet or tinned, rinsed and drained)
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 70g breadcrumbs
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 30g porridge oats

Method

1. 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan.
   2. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large casserole dish, or saucepan, over medium heat.
   3. Fry the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, mushrooms, sage, parsley, rosemary, and lentils for 5 minutes then season with salt and pepper.
   4. Add the flaxseed, breadcrumbs, oats, and 2 tbsp tomato paste, leaving 1 tbsp for the topping.
   5. Add a portion of the partly cooked vegetables to a food processor (or use a handheld blender very gently). You want to pulse the ingredients together really lightly, in batches so that you maintain some chunk in the “dough/mixture”, you don’t want to puree it. If you end up over blending one batch of it, then you can add a small portion of an unblended batch to it.
   6. Lightly oil a non-stick meatloaf tin with 1 tsp olive oil or coconut oil. If your tin isn’t non-stick, or if you’re not confident flipping the meatloaf out, line the tin with baking paper.
   7. Pack the lentil mixture into the tin. Bake the loaf for 20 minutes.
   8. Mix the remaining tbsp of tomato paste and 1 tsp olive oil and cover the meatloaf with it. take it out of the oven and cover with a mixture of 1 tbsp tomato paste with 1 tsp olive oil. Pop it back in the oven and cook for a final 15 minutes.
   9. Allow the loaf to cool for at least 15mins before removing. If you used baking paper just pull all the edges up and lift the loaf out of the tin. If you lined with oil, cover the top of the top with a large plate or cooling rack. Flip the loaf onto the rack so the bottom is facing up and then flip it again onto a plate or chopping board.
   10. Serve the loaf with brussels sprouts, cabbage, or any other favourite vegetables.