Vegan Lentil Roast (Easy Lentil Loaf)

Vegan lentil loaf topped with cranberry sauce and rosemary.

5 from 1 vote

Vegan Lentil Roast (Easy Lentil Loaf)

Make this vegan lentil roast your next Sunday lunch or Christmas dinner centrepiece. Moist & utterly delicious, this easy lentil loaf makes perfect vegan & vegetarian roast alternative!

Course Buffet, Christmas Dinner, Sunday Lunch

Cuisine British

Keyword lentil loaf, lentil roast, vegan roast

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1 10

Servings generous servings

Calories 338kcal

Author Jo Allison

Equipment

Ingredients

2 tablespoon rapeseed/olive oil
150 g onions peeled and roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped, grated
200-235 g cooked green lentils see notes
180 g cooked chestnuts see notes
200 g cooked quinoa or millet see notes
250 g chestnut mushrooms cleaned and roughly chopped
15 g dried porcini mushrooms rehydrated in freshly boiled water
15 g nutritional yeast
2-3 dried bay leaves or 1 fresh bay leaf
2 allspice berries optional
2 juniper berries optional
2 teaspoon dried thyme see notes
1 tablespoon dried mixed herbs see notes
1 tablespoon dijon mustard see notes
2 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
salt and pepper to taste

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Put dried porcini mushrooms into a bowl and cover them with freshly boiled water. Leave them to sit for a few minutes to rehydrate as you get on with your loaf.
Prepare vegetables by cleaning and roughly chopping mushrooms, peeling and roughly chopping onions and peeling and mincing or grating fresh garlic.
Heat up couple tablespoons of oil in a large non-stick pan and add onions, garlic, bay leaves together with allspice and juniper berries (if using).
Sauté them for a few minutes stirring frequently until softened and translucent but not too coloured. Next, remove allspice and juniper berries which would have already imparted their flavour onto the onions.
Add chopped mushrooms followed by dried herbs and give it all a good stir.
Sauté mushrooms and onion mixture for a few minutes until cooked down nicely. Once done take out the bay leaves.
Next, add rehydrated dried porcini together with water they've been soaking in followed by soy sauce/tamari.
Give it all a good stir and let it cook for few more minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated, then take the pan off the heat and set it aside.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
Put cooked chestnuts into the bowl of your food processor and pulse few times to turn them into crumbs.
Add all of the remaining loaf ingredients into the bowl of food processor with chestnuts and puree until you get smooth paste. You might need to do it in batches depending on the size of your food processor. You might also need to stop pureeing couple of times to scrape mixture from the sides of the bowl and puree again for nice and smooth finish (although it doesn't need to be a perfect puree).
Transfer seasoned loaf mixture to a large bowl, taste and season with salt and pepper. Also feel free to adjust other seasoning.
Transfer pureed mixture into prepared, lightly oiled loaf tin lined with baking paper overlapping on both sides for easy loaf removal later.
Press mixture nice and tight using large spoon to help you.
Bake in preheated oven for approximately 45 minutes until nicely browned and firm to touch.
Let the roast cool in the tin for a few minutes before removing it onto a board.
Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Nutritional information is approximate, per serving based on 4 servings and should be treated as a rough guideline only.
Green lentils can be substituted with puy or brown lentils. You can cook them yourself or use tinned ones. Use anything between 200-235g of cooked lentils which would be one tin of drained and rinsed lentils here in the UK. If you're cooking your own lentils you'll need 100g lentils to be cooked according to the instructions on the packaging.
You could use walnuts instead of chestnuts.
If you don't have any quinoa or millet, you could try using cooked rice (preferably brown) instead.
Dried thyme could be substituted with some rosemary or sage. Fresh herbs would also be fine.
Mixed herbs can be substituted with herbs de Provence or Italian seasoning.
Dijon can be substituted with English or wholegrain mustard.
Leftovers will keep 4-5 days in the fridge. Freezer friendly.

TIPS:

Cook your quinoa or millet in advance and let it cool completely before use. This will allow for excess moisture to evaporate and prevent soggy roast.
Don't forget to take allspice & juniper berries as well as bay leaves out before pureeing the mixture for lentil loaf.
Give chestnuts a quick blend in the food processor before you add all the remaining ingredients as they are quite chunky so it's good to give them head start.
Depending on the size of your food processor you might need to puree your ingredients in batches and then combine them all in a large bowl.
Once baked, let your roast cool a little bit before turning it out onto a board and slicing. The longer you let it stand the easier it will be to slice.
Make sure to taste and adjust seasoning of your lentil loaf before baking. We are all individuals with different taste preferences so don't be afraid to adapt your loaf to suit you!
Line loaf tin with some baking paper so that it overlaps on the long sides of the tin. It will make for much easier and neater loaf removal later.

Nutrition