This hearty vegan lentil roast is made with savory red lentils, mushrooms and seasoned with garlic and dill.
This is another one of those posts where I share a vegan version of some food that I was never really into in it’s non-vegan form. I think so anyway – this is assuming you could call this a vegan meatloaf. I’ve had a number of people ask me if I have a recipe for veggie meatloaf, and they generally look at me like I’m nuts when I tell them I’m not into the idea. I’m still not really into the idea, at least if you’re talking about a vegan version of classic meatloaf.
It wasn’t until recently that I realized I’d been making veggie “meatloaf” for years. One my first vegetarian cookbooks had a recipe for a lentil roast. It never crossed my mind that this was a vegetarian’s version of meatloaf. Aside from being in the shape of a loaf, it was a far cry from any meatloaf I’d eaten as a kid.
The flavors in that early lentil loaf were a bit different than what I’ve included in this recipe. The first version also included copious amounts of cheese, whereas the latest version is vegan. Over the years I tweaked that lentil loaf recipe until I ended up with the roast (more appetizing than “loaf” if you ask me) that you see before you. Maybe not the prettiest of my kitchen creations, but it’s hearty and delicious as heck. This is the first time I included dill as the main flavoring, and it turned out to be the best idea ever.
Serve this as a holiday main course to please the plant eaters in your life, and I’m betting your omnivorous dinner guests will be gobbling it up with gusto. If you’ve got a hectic day of meal prep planned, mix everything up a day in advance, prepare your loaf and stick it in the fridge. Let it come up to temperature the following day and bake according to the recipe.
Mushroom Dill Red Lentil Roast
Ingredients
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup dried red lentils
- 8 oz. white button mushrooms finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 scallions chopped
- 1 cup panko
- 1/2 cup unflavored soy or almond milk
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh dill
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
Instructions
- Place broth and lentils in small saucepan over high heat. Stir a few times and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer until lentils are tender and broth is fully absorbed, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375º. Coat a 9 inch loaf pan with oil or cooking spray.
- Place cooked lentils in medium mixing bowl. Add all remaining ingredients. Mix well.
- Transfer mixture to prepared loaf pan. Smooth out the top a bit with the back of a spoon.
- Bake until top is lightly browned, 50-55 minutes.
- Transfer to cooling rack and allow cool for 10-15 minutes before removing from pan.
This sounds delicious! When you cook the lentils, do they soak up all the broth or do you discard the leftover broth when they are cooked?
Good question! It all gets absorbed. I updated the recipe to note that. Thank you!! :)
Can you sub green lentils for the red?
I’m not sure if green would work. Green lentils cook up much firmer than red, so you might not be able to get the right consistency. If you were to give this a shot I’d say at least increase the simmer time by a bit – however long it takes to get them completely firm, and play around with the amount of milk and panko until you get the mixture to a consistency that might be right for veggie burgers. If you do give this a try with green lentils I’d love to hear how it turns out.
About how many cups does 8 oz of mushrooms equal? I know that for liquids is is about a cup, but mushrooms weigh a lot less than liquids.i have just chipped a bunch of mushroom stems and will be making this once I have this answer.
Thanks!
That would be about 2 cups of sliced mushrooms. Enjoy!
This was amazing! I cannot believe how simple this was to make, and how well it holds together. Thanks for a great recipe.
Awesome! Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for commenting to let me know. :)
The more I read your recipes, i become more and more convinced that you may be my culinary kindred spirit… this is SO up my alley… Yum :)
I made your red lentil roast tonight and it was great! I did make some substitutions…I forgot to look at the recipe before the food shopping trip, so I used an onion instead of scallions, and oatmeal inplace of the panko. And I could of sworn it said something about feta cheese. (haha) But it turned out great. Even the husband liked it! Now if I could only get the teenager to try it!
Haha! You sound like me…and half the time when I forget it’s for my own recipe! This one is definitely forgiving, and those sound like great adjustments. Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks Karen!
Have you tried freezing this and thawing/reheating later? I am looking for some make ahead dishes to save time on the big day
I haven’t frozen this one specifically, but I have frozen other vegan loaf (loaves?) and they seem to work pretty well upon reheating. Thanks for the comment! Good luck!