Lentil Loaf with Cranberry and Orange Sauce

This Vegan Lentil loaf is moist and delicious, with all the flavours of Christmas. You can either bake it in a loaf pan or make them into balls.  Either way, you’ll need a food processor for this recipe.

 

Lentil Loaf

½ cup water

¼ cup ground flaxseed

2 Tbsp canola oil

1 small onion, diced

1 medium carrot, scrubbed and diced

1 celery stack, diced

6 mushrooms, diced

1 ½ tsp ground sage

¼ tsp table salt

¼ tsp freshly cracked pepper

½ cup walnuts

½ cup fresh or frozen cranberries

½ cup large flake oats – see sidebar

1 – 540 mL/19 fl. Oz. can lentils, rinsed and drained

1 Tbsp lower sodium soy sauce or lite tamari – see sidebar

Cranberry Orange Sauce

½ cup fresh or frozen cranberries

1 clementine, unpeeled, diced to equal ½ cup

3 Tbsp white granulated sugar

¼ cup water

 

1. In a small bowl or a glass measuring cup whisk together the water and ground flaxseed, set aside.
2. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add oil, onion, carrot, celery and mushrooms. Sauté for about 4-6 minutes or until they are partially cooked without becoming overly soft. Add ground sage, salt, and pepper, stir in well and remove from the heat.
3. Make sure the oven rack is in the middle of the oven ( if you are making these into balls make sure and the second one is just below.) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a loaf pan or two large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
4. In a food processor, gently pulse the cranberries until they are finely chopped. Tip into a large bowl. Add walnuts to the food processor and gently pulse them until they are still looking like walnuts and aren’t a paste, you aren’t making walnut butter. Add them to the cranberries. Add rolled oats and lentils to the food processor and pulse gently, once again just a note – you don’t want to make a paste, they should still look like oats and lentil just finely chopped. Tip into the large bowl. Stir well.
5. Tip the cooked vegetables into the food processor and gently pulse until the they are more finely chopped, but not a mushy mess. Add to the bowl. Stir in well.
6. Add the soy sauce or tamari to the water flaxseed mixture and whisk well. Pour into the vegetable/lentil mixture and mix really well.
7. for the loaf: tip into prepared pan and smooth down. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
8. For the balls: Scoop a heaping 1 Tbsp amounts of the lentil mixture onto the prepared pans. You should get between 40-42 lentil balls. Bake for 15 minutes and then reverse the pans: bringing the bottom one to the top rack and vice versa. Bake for another 15-20 minutes or until firm without being dried out.
9. Meanwhile make the sauce: in a small saucepan mix together the cranberries, orange, sugar, and water. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to medium low, and stir occasionally until the cranberries have burst and the mixture is fairly thick. This takes about 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your saucepan. Remove from heat and let cool.
10. OR make the sauce up to three days in advance and store in the fridge, warm up before serving over the lentil loaf or balls.
11. For the lentil loaf: when its ready, take out of the oven and let set for 5 minutes. Using the hang over of parchment paper lift it out of the pan. Slice into 8-10 slices, top with the Cranberry Orange Sauce and serve.
12. For the balls: place them on a serving plate, spoon a dob of the cranberry orange sauce on top and serve.

Makes 8-10 servings Or Makes 40-42 balls

Professional Home Economist tip

To make this GF: choose GF oats and a GF soy sauce. Tamari is naturally GF.

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