This Vegan Meatloaf has a great flavor and that perfect meatloaf texture that makes you want to come back for more and more.
Alright, I wasn’t planning on posting this recipe this early, but I got a request to share it and thought this would be the easiest way to do it. I also forgot to get a picture of a slice of the meatloaf, it looked so good, I forgot that I wanted to write about it and my hunger got the better of me.
Anyway, I have always been intrigued by the idea of meatloaf. It is not something I every remember having (probably because I don’t eat meat) but I always like the idea of it. I have seen many a vegetarian / vegan option that contain beans. I made a recipe like that (will probably post it later) and the bean taste was very prominent.
Now, I’m not going for classic meatloaf flavor. I don’t really like comparing a vegan to vegetarian option to its meat counterpart just because it has the same name. At the fundamental core, they are different. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be delicious in their own right.
This vegan meatloaf was interesting because I feel like I put in everything and the kitchen sink. But having a base of lentils and quinoa is what made it this vegan meatloaf special. Having the raw ingredients start small actually made it easier to blend everything together as well.
Check out the Make section of MCG for more fun recipes like desserts and savory dishes.
Ingredients
This recipe has soooo many ingredients… I think it wins for number of ingredients in a recipe. Except for maybe some of the baking stuff but that it more like 4 recipes put together. It also showed me that I have a lot of weird ingredients in my kitchen. When I went to go grocery shopping, the only thing I needed to buy was Worcestershire sauce and the vegetables.
I will note, before it’s pointed out, I did not actually use a vegan Worcestershire sauce. I was making this recipe for three people: one who can’t do meat, one who can’t do dairy, and one who can’t do eggs. Together we are vegan. There is a one-to-one replacement to make this dish truly vegan though so it’s an easy enough switch.
Process
Food Prep
The core of a vegan meatloaf is the food processor. Everything goes into it at some point (I did all together but it can be done in parts). But! Some of the ingredients need to be prepped before the star joins the show. One of the easiest things is cooking the lentils and Quinoa. For both, they are 2 parts water to 1 part lentil / quinoa. Boil until just before cooked. Since I wanted them to be on the al dente side, I did add less water that 2 parts. It was closed to 1 ½ parts.
The other main food prep was vegetables. I started with oil and then added the celery, onions, and garlic. I wanted to soften them up and bring a nice sauteed flavor. Once the onions were just starting to brown, I added in the mushrooms. I did cut up the mushrooms previously as I wanted them to cook as evenly as possible when in the pan. And then I waited.
There are two goals that are coming out of this process: getting everything cooked and getting rid of as much water as possible. Whenever I was to get mushrooms to mimic a more meat like texture. I try to cook off as much of their natural liquids as possible.
About halfway through the cooking process, I always try to remove a reasonable amount of the excess liquid because it becomes a pool at the bottom of the pan. And with the vegetables cooked, it’s time to blitz.
Blitzzzzzz
This is where everything really comes together, and I do mean that literally. I started by adding the lentils, quinoa, rolled oats, pecans, and other 13 ingredients into the food processor and blitzing. This was done in bursts in order to not over tax the food processor and to give me a chance to scrape the edges of the bowl to make sure everything was blending.
After I blended to a consistency I was happy with, I slowly added in the vegetable mix. I only did this in parts in order to not overload the food processor. Once everything was blended, I folded in some corn to add some variation of texture into the loaf. Then I filled a loaf tin with mixture and packed it as tightly as I could.
The Sauce
The last component for the vegan meatloaf is the sauce that goes on top. For this I added ketchup, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, smoked paprika and soy sauce. Tomato paste can also be used instead of ketchup but will need to be offset with one of the more liquid ingredients (vinegar, Worcestershire, or soy sauce). Toss it all in a bowl and whisk! Then pour evenly over the top, I used a spatula to smooth everything out.
Baking
The last for making the vegan meatloaf is baking! Before going into the oven, I placed a layer of tinfoil over the whole dish. This helps to keep the heat in and caramelize the top a bit more. I took tin foil off a part way through baking and then finished off the bake. And it came out beautifully.
Reflections
Like I said at the beginning, I’m definitely sad that I do not have any photo of the meatloaf slices, but it looks very similar to the blended version. Only darker since it’s baked. The sauce went really well with the loaf, and I could not help myself from taking seconds. And thirds.
This is a recipe I would definitely recommend for anyone looking to make a vegan meatloaf. I think I do like it more than its bean equivalent but that’s just because I prefer the flavor of lentils and quinoa over beans. And that might have just been because it’s something so new to me.
Lessons
Flax Seed… Eggs?
When looking into the world of vegan foods, I found there are many options for substitutes that I was not aware of. Eggs are something I’ve never really had to give up before. But, throughout my research, the one substitute that really caught my eye was flax seeds.
When ground and combined with water, flax seeds absorb the water and take on a sticky and gluey property. This allows them to act like a binder, similar to what an egg would do. However, flax eggs work best when they are a small component of the whole recipe.
recipe
Lentil and Quinoa Vegan Meatloaf
Equipment
- 1 Food Processor
Ingredients
Meatloaf
- 3 Cup Cooked Lentils approximately 1 ½ cup dry
- 2 Cups Quinoa approximately ¾ cup dry
- 3 Stalks Celery chopped
- 1 Onion diced
- 6 Garlic Cloves minced
- 16 oz. Mushrooms chopped
- 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Cup Uncooked Rolled Oats
- ½ Cup Pecans
- 3 Tablespoon Ground Flaxseed 9 Tablespoon water
- 4 Tablespoon Tomato Paste
- 3 Tablespoon Maple Syrup
- 2 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce the vegan kind
- 3 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 3 Tablespoon Nutritional Yeast
- ½ Teaspoon Smoked Paprika
- 2 Teaspoon Onion Powder
- 2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Paprika
- 1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
- 1 Teaspoon Cayenne
- 2 Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Small Bag of Frozen Corn
- 1 Teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar
Sauce
- 1 Cup Ketchup
- 2 Teaspoon Maple Syrup
- 1 Teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar
- 1 Teaspoon Worcestershire the Vegan kind
- 1 Tablespoon Smoked Paprika
- 1 Teaspoon Soy Sauce
Instructions
- Cook the lentils and Quinoa according to their instructions until they are just barely cooked.
- Preheat the oven to 400℉.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the three (3) tablespoon ground flaxseed and nine (9) tablespoons water. Let sit for 5 minutes.
- In a large saucepan, heat up 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil until hot. Then add in the chopped celery, diced onions, and minced garlic. Cook until slight softened and fragrant (about 2 to 3 minutes).
- Add chopped mushrooms to the saucepan and cook evenly until the mushrooms have lost most of their water. Use a spoon to remove excess liquid from the pan as the mushrooms cook (about 5 – 10 minutes).
- In a large food processor, put in lentils, quinoa, oatmeal, pecans, flax eggs (step 3), tomato paste, maple syrup, 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, nutritional yeast, Worcestershire sauce, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, dried oregano, cayenne powder, and salt. Blitz until combined.
- Add the vegetable mix (step 5) into the food processor in parts and blitz until combined. If the food processor is not large enough to hold the complete mixture, place some of the fully blitzed mixture aside in a large bowl. Then add the remaining mixture once blitzed. The entire mixture should be transferred to a bowl after blending.
- Using a silicone spatula, fold corn into the meatloaf mixture.
- Then place the mixture into a loaf pan, as tightly packed as possible.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the ketchup, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, smoked paprika and soy sauce. Pour over the top of the meatloaf and spread to create and even layer.
- Place a layer of tinfoil on top of the loaf pan. Bake for thirty (30) minutes. Then remove the tin foil and bake for another 15 minutes.
- Let cool slightly before slicing.
Leave a ReplyCancel reply