Sundried Tomato Red Lentil Loaf

Hey guys! This is Heather from HealthyVeganRecipes.net. So things are starting to feel like Christmas
around here, weíve got the Christmas music going. No snow yet but Iím sure weíll get
there soon.
And what I thought I would share with you guys today is a recipe that would be fantastic
as part of your holiday meal. So what Iíve got for you is a lentil loaf which is a pretty
popular vegan option for main dish.
And you can make it super super delicious by adding certain seasonings and what Iím
gonna add is a sweet potato. A lot of my holiday recipes include sweet potatoes because I love
them.
They are incredibly tasty and really nice and soft and just add a nice comforting texture
to dish so weíre gonna do red lentils and sweet potato and Iíve got my red lentils
already cooking here. They are excellent lentils to use because they cook really really fast
and theyíre also really soft.
A lot of people have trouble with lentil loafs because if you use the green or the brown
lentils, they donít mush up too much and so your loaf can wind up pretty crumbly.
But if you use the red lentil, they get really really soft and Iíll show you how the texture
works with them. They take about 20 minutes to cook so pretty fast in the bean cooking
world.
And as always if you want the recipe, head over to HealthyVeganRecipes.net. Iíll post
all of the ingredients and the measurements and the direction there. For those of you
who want to see how itís done, thatís what weíre gonna do next.
So your starting your red lentils that look like this, theyíre split in half thatís
why they take so little time to cook. Then when they are cooked, your just gonna cook
them by boiling them in water with no salt. Theyíre gonna look like this, theyíre yellow
and they wind up looking very very mushy and soft.
Then to this Iím gonna add my sweet potato that I have grated up. If you donít want
to grate your sweet potato, you can just chop it up and boil it and mix it in and kind of
mash it.
But grating it works really well because it cooks fairly quickly and I just wanna soften
it a little bit before I put this on the oven. Thatís why Iím mixing it in here with the
lentils.
And like I said a lot of my recipes that I like to suggest for holidays include sweet
potato because itís just an awesome holiday staple. But if you have too much sweet potato
on your table already, you can totally swap this out for carrots or beets or any other
type of root vegetable that you like would be excellent.
And I put together a whole bunch of ideas for you guys for holiday recipes. Iíll post
a link to that with the video so you can check it out.
Now, you donít add any salt while the lentils are cooking but then once you get the sweet
potato in there you can sprinkle a little bit of salt in there and that will help the
sweet potatoes soften up.
Once they soften, Iíll also gonna add in some onion and some mushrooms that Iíll chop
up really really finely and again I just wanna get those in here just so they soften a little
bit before this goes into the oven.
So all youíre looking to do here is just soften up the vegetables a little bit so Iíve
got the onion and the mushrooms in here now as well. Iíve added a little bit more salt
for those vegetables to help them soften.
And a good thing about adding the vegetables here rather than just wanna bake is theyíre
gonna release moisture as they cook so this mixture Iíve got here is looking pretty soggy.
I also use quite a bit of water for the lentils so when I put it in the direction Iíll put
less water than I use here.
So if you get a lot of water coming out from these vegetables you can just drain it off,
just put the lid on and drain out a little bit. So once youíve got the veggies soften
up a little bit then you can move on to make this into a really nice thick batter Iím
gonna call it for your loaf.
And what weíll use is some ground flax seed. This gonna help the liquid in your mixture
stick together. Iím gonna put two tablespoons in there, Iím also going to add some rolled
oats that Iíve ground up to a flour.
You can use different type of flour if you like but I like to use rolled oats. Theyíre
fairly easy to your digestive system and then I donít have to keep a bunch of flour on
hand and Iím going to put about four tablespoons in there.
Give it a stir and depending on how big your onion and your sweet potato more and how much
liquid is in here, you might need to play with those measurements to make it work for
you.
But what you want to have in the end is something that looks like itís gonna stick together
when you put it in the oven. So play up and down, I might need to add a little bit more
and the other thing Iím gonna add to this butter to make it really thick and rich and
taste good in your mouth is add some fat.
Fat really helps with that feeling in your mouth of something thatís really rich and
satisfying. And what Iím gonna use is some nut or seed butter. I happen to have some
flour in the fridge today but whatever kind you like. A neutral flavor is best like peanut
probably wonít be the greatest because then youíll have a peanut tasting loaf.
Although if youíre going to that, no worries, that would be great! You only need a little
bit, itís gonna get thin out in the butter but you just wanna have a little bit in there
to kinda carry the flavor of the seasonings that weíre gonna add in here and then again
like I said that mouth feeling of satisfying rich fat.
Alright, so as you stirred this up, the nut butter will kind of melt into the butter and
make sure you stir it for a little while before you add more of anything because flax is kind
of slow acting and it didnít look like much at first but as I stir this around the flax
is absorbing water and its gonna make this really super sticky.
Now, I like to have it a little bit drier of a loaf so Iím gonna add more oat flour
but if you like a really moist loaf then donít add more flour.
So make sure everything gets stirred through and they have a good texture going on and
then you can add seasonings and I was thinking of taking this in a sweet direction with some
orange and some ginger and some cranberries but then I remembered that I have some sundried
tomatoes and I wanted to use those.
So Iím gonna go salty and Iím gonna just cut out some sundried tomatoes with my kitchen
scissors right in there. Iím also going to press some garlic in here. Iíve got some
thyme and some oregano and basil mix up together here and Iím just gonna sprinkle some in,
get some margarine in here too.
And then Iím gonna put this into a loaf pan that Iíve lined with parchment paper, makes
it really easy to take it out of the loaf pan and afterwards. Now I donít know if you
momís used to do this but Philís mom sure does and she tops off her meatloaf with a
nice glazed so you can do the same thing with the lentil loafs and what I did today was
just spread a little bit of ketchup on top.
You can get a little fancier, put some chutney on there, the cranberry apple chutney recipe
that I have on my site would be awesome or some other type of tomato base sauce would
be excellent as well.
I put mine on about half an hour before the loaf was finish so that it does not get too
crispy on top but if you like that, go for it. put in on right in the beginning.
So one important tip on your loaf is when you take it out the oven, let it cool off
for a good 15 minutes so that it can solidify a little bit and when you take it out on the
pan it wonít fall apart. And when you cut it, it will be a little more solid than right
when itís piping out from the oven.
So thereís my loaf and I find it cuts best with a serrated type knife and then you can
just cut slices of it. Serve it along with the rest of your holiday delicious meal and
there you go, itís really soft and moist inside becuase of the sweet potato.
I tried a little bite, itís has a phenomenal flavor, a lot is due to the sweet potato and
the sundried tomatoes. So thatís it for our holiday lentil loaf. Taste amazing! Pretty
easy to make and really healthy, great combination for your holiday meal!
If you need some other ideas on what to make, you can check those out over at HealthyVeganRecipes.net
and I will also post the rest of the directions for this guy of course.
So thatís it for me today, I hope you guys enjoyed and have fun planning your holiday
meal.