A fresh take on a Vegan Lentil Loaf for you! It's made with a delicious blend of lentils, mushrooms and walnuts and has a beautifully festive cranberry topping. Those pops of juicy cranberry in every bite are so good, plus they make it look pretty impressive. It would make a great centrepiece on your holiday table!
Ah, it's nearly Christmas! It's only gone and crept up on me yet again. It happens every year. I think I have loads of time and then all of a sudden that time slips through my fingers and it's here and I'm in a mad panic to get everything organized.
Because it's the festive season, and it's always super busy, I am always in need of recipes that feel festive but aren't too difficult, and bonus points if they can be prepared ahead of the big day. And boy have I got all those points covered with this Mushroom Lentil Loaf with Cranberries recipe. It's so good I've even included it in my Vegan Christmas Dinner Menu, Shopping List and Timeline. If you want your entire Christmas meal planned down to the tiniest detail for you then go check it out.
This new vegan meatloaf recipe is an adapted version of my very popular Vegan Meatloaf with Gravy recipe. If you have tried that and loved it then you will love this new Lentil Loaf too.
The Mushroom Lentil Loaf with Cranberries just screams festive. The juicy red cranberries make it look so pretty, plus those juicy pops of cranberry in every bite are so good.
As well as cranberries on top, there are dried cranberries through the actual body of the Lentil Loaf. They add a lovely chew and a little sweetness which is really good with the savoury loaf and the slightly tart cranberry topping.
What's great too, is that because of the cranberry topping, you don't need to serve cranberry sauce on the side so there's one less thing to make and remember to put on the table.
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN LENTIL LOAF
This recipe involves quite a lot of chopping, but if you have a food processor it can all be done in minutes.
I have this one and absolutely love it:
When I make this recipe, just about the only thing I use a knife for is cutting the ends off the onion and peeling it. Everything else just gets thrown in here and pulsed until finely chopped. It couldn't be easier!
First chop all of the vegetables and walnuts then add them to a large mixing bowl with the lentils.
Then add the breadcrumbs, ground flax, flour, grated apple and dried cranberries.
Then the seasoning, herbs and tamari.
Then mix it all up thoroughly.
Put some cranberries and sugar in a pan and warm over a medium heat until the sugar is starting to melt and they are beginning to just get juicy.
Line a loaf pan with a strip of parchment paper and pour in the cranberries.
Then pile on the Lentil Loaf mixture and pack it in very tightly.
At this stage it can be refrigerated for a couple of days or baked right away.
Here it is before baking:
And here it is after baking:
Once ready, it's best to leave it in the tin to rest for 15-30 minutes. You will find that it cuts much better if you do this.
HOW TO SERVE VEGAN LENTIL LOAF
This Mushroom Lentil Loaf with Cranberries will make a wonderful addition to your Christmas or Thanksgiving meal, or just for a regular dinner.
I love to serve it with my Healthy No Oil Roasted Potatoes, Vegan Green Bean Casserole, steamed vegetables, roasted red cabbage, vegan mashed sweet potatoes and lashings of gravy. And if I want to push the boat out some crispy Vegan Yorkshire Puddings. It works really well with the gravy from my original meatloaf recipe here and also with my Red Wine Vegan Gravy.
It's also awesome served with fluffy, buttery mashed potato or simply with lots of vegetables on the side.
THIS IS WHY I AM LOVING THIS MUSHROOM LENTIL LOAF WITH CRANBERRIES
- It looks so pretty and festive!
- It has that perfect balance of savoury, sweet and tart
- It's easy to make
- It can be made ahead then cooked a few days later
- It's comforting and satisfying
- It's great eaten immediately but also reheats really well
- Leftovers are awesome thinly sliced in sandwiches, or on a plate with chutneys, pickles, crusty bread etc
Hungry for more?
If you love this Mushroom Lentil Loaf, then you might also enjoy my Vegan Roast and my Vegan Meatloaf with Gravy.
Mushroom Lentil Loaf with Cranberries
Author:
Ingredients
- 1 small onion , chopped finely
- 2 cloves garlic ,chopped finely
- 198g / 1 cup cooked red lentils , weighed after cooking
- 198g / 1 cup cooked green lentils , I like to use French green lentils but any will work (weighed after cooking)
- 226g / 3 cups finely chopped mushrooms
- 62g / ½ cup walnut pieces
- 8 tablespoons / ½ cup ground flax seed , it must be ground not whole
- 45g / ½ cup flour , all purpose (plain flour in the UK), oat, rice, spelt or wholewheat
- 75g / 1 very packed cup breadcrumbs (use gluten-free breadcrumbs if necessary). You can use store-bought breadcrumbs, or let some bread go stale at home and either put it in a food processor or blender to turn it into crumbs. Leftover crumbs can be put in a bag or container in the freezer and used straight from frozen for other recipes.
- 70g / ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ large apple , grated (no need to peel)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 tablespoon tamari , or soy sauce, or coconut aminos
For the cranberry topping
- 200g / 2 cup cranberries , fresh or frozen
- 4 tablespoons sugar , not brown sugar or coconut sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Add all of the ingredients (except the fresh/frozen cranberries and sugar) to a very large bowl and stir really well until combined. I find it easier to use clean hands to scrunch it all together and mix it.
- Put the cranberries and the sugar in a small pan over a medium heat and just cook until the sugar is mostly dissolved and some juice is appearing in the bottom of the pan. It only takes 5 - 6 minutes. Then remove from the heat.
- Grease a 1lb or similar loaf pan (about 8.5 inch x 4.5 inch or 9inch x 5inch) and line it with a strip of baking parchment going along the middle. (See my picture above). Leave some paper overhanging as it will make turning it out easier.
- Spoon in the cranberries (you don't have to wait for them to cool down but be careful as the sugary liquid will be very hot) and even them out a bit with a spoon.
- Pack the lentil loaf mixture on the top. Really push it down all over and make sure it is even on the top.
- Place the loaf pan on a baking tray (just in case the cranberry liquid spills over) and bake for 1hr - 1 hr 10 minutes. It should be golden and crusty looking on the top and coming away from the edges. There will probably be a little jammy red liquid oozing over the edge too.
- Once done, leave to rest in the pan for 15-30 minutes (it will stay warm for up to an hour if you wrap it in some tin foil) before turning out and slicing. To turn it out, put a plate or board on top of it then flip it over so the plate/board ends up on the bottom. It will slide out really easily but if you do have any trouble you can give a little tug on the parchment paper to ease it out. Once it's out, gently peel back the parchment paper to reveal the pretty cranberry top.
NOTES
- Don't soak them prior to cooking.
- Rinse in a sieve with fresh water to remove any dust or debris.
- Cook on a stovetop, using 3 cups of liquid (water, stock) to 1 cup of dry lentils. Be sure to use a large enough saucepan as the lentils will double or triple in size.
- Bring to a boil, cover tightly, reduce heat to low and simmer until they are tender.
- For whole lentils, cook time is usually about 15-20 minutes.
- For split red lentils, cook time is typically only about 5 minutes.
- Spoon a couple out and taste them to check done-ness periodically and as soon as they are ready, drain and leave to cool.
If you did, be a ☆ and let me know what you think by rating it and commenting below. Tag me on Instagram too. I am @avirtualvegan and my hashtag is #avirtualvegan ________________________________________________________
NUTRITION
Nutritional information is provided for convenience & as a courtesy. The data is a computer generated estimate so should be used as a guide only.
Lynn says
Made it today and it was amazing! I didn’t have any gluten free bread crumbs so i used oatmeal and it worked perfect. Great recipe, Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Mark says
Sounds delicious. Any indication of calories per portion?
Melanie McDonald says
Nutritional information is included underneath the recipe.
Marilee says
I've made this before and it is delicious! I'm planning to make for Thanksgiving next week. I see you see it can be made ahead and refrigerated up to three days, but I'm thinking I could make it soon and pop it in the freezer for now. What do you think?
Melanie McDonald says
So pleased you enjoyed it! I have never frozen it because it has so many mushrooms in it and they can go a bit funny when frozen. I always worry the texture would change. However, plenty of people have told me they have and they enjoyed it.
Sheila says
This sounds so delicious and makes for a beautiful presentation. I'll definitely try this. And I love it that you include measurements in both grams and tsp/TSP/cups, etc. Thank you for that and for this recipe.
Melanie McDonald says
Hope you enjoy it!
silky Sue says
I just wanna say that This is an amazing recipe.i made it for my Thanksgiving dinner it came out sooòo beautiful. I really love how it looks. The texture was moist, not sure if it should be but it was perfect for me.
Instead of half an apple I put in a whole apple, I used whole wheat panko bread crumbs and oat flour, and instead of 1/2 cup dried cranberries I used 3/4 cup ( I love them) I also used oragano and marjoram instead of rosemary (I didn't have any). After i mixed everything together I lined my pan with parchment paper and put the mixture in just like how the recipe stated and I froze it before I baked it. (I made it three weeks before Thanksgiving). 2 days before my Thanksgiving dinner I placed it in the refrigerator to thaw out, I then baked it at 375° like it said in the recipe and it turned out beautifully.the cranberries ar so gorgeous I love this. I will definitely make this again. Thank you for this recipe. I will tag u in my Instagram as soon as I finish this post.
My Instagram is @silkies_veganfood just so u kno it's me😁
Quinn says
I made this for Christmas dinner. I did all the prep work early in the day. It made one big loaf and two smaller loaves. I froze the smaller loaves for another meal or to give to someone. The cranberries provided beauty and added flavor to this delicious cranberry lentil loaf.
Signe Kastberg says
I made this for Christmas dinner. I made it gluten-free by using gluten-free flour and bread crumbs, and that worked fine. It was overall a bit dry, but perhaps I drained the lentils too much? And I did find that the cranberry sauce on the bottom (that became the top) was burned and didn't look lovely like in your photo. It might be I put it too low in the oven. Taste: delicious! It was a big hit in our dairy-free gluten-free household. Looking forward to the leftovers. It did take me nearly 3 hours total due to all the chopping in the preparation stages, but it was worth the effort.
Richard says
I have made this a few times and the cranberies ended up scorching every time. This time I put the cranberries on top and lowered the temperature to 350 F. It was perfect!
Kolbie says
Easy to make and tasty. Reminded my mom of her turkey dressing.
Patricia Giannelia says
Hi, made this loaf as a pre-Christmas trial - tasted great, but was very "wet", and even "wetter" than when I put it into the pan. Is this because of the mushrooms? I was wondering if I might put oatmeal or cornmeal to dry it out a bit?
Also, the cranberries on the bottom got a bit scorched - would it be better to bake it at 350?
Incidentally, discovered a new breakfast - cooked red lentils. When I tasted them to see if they were soft enough, I was struck by the nutty flavour, so we had them this morning instead of oatmeal porridge, and with a no-salt herb sprinkle for added seasoning - amazing!
A Virtual Vegan says
It shouldn't be wet. I've never had it turn out like that. So strange. Did you make any changes to the recipe? It does already have flour, ground flaxseed and breadcrumbs in it which should be more than enough to soak up any moisture from the mushrooms. You didn't overcook the lentils perhaps? If you overcook them they soak up a lot of water which could have made it a bit wet. That's all I can think of that might have caused it.
As for the cranberries getting scorched, I've never had that happen or had any reports of it before. Perhaps your oven runs a bit hot? If you have an oven thermometer it might be worth checking it.
Ava says
Would it be possible to make ahead and freeze uncooked, or even frozen when cooked?
A Virtual Vegan says
You can make this up to 3 days ahead then wrap it well and refrigerate. It will need an extra 10 minutes in the oven to compensate for it starting off chilled. I haven't tried freezing it but I'm pretty sure it would be fine. I would cook it first though then freeze it in the loaf pan. Defrost overnight then bake it again to warm through. About 30 to 40 minutes on 375 F should do it. I wouldn't bake it straight from frozen because it would take too long and the sugary cranberry top might get a bit overdone. Hope that helps!
Victoria says
This was so good! I was looking for something to do with lentils and the fresh cranberries I happened to have on hand. And even though I ordinarily love savoury sweet combinations, this one seemed risky so I followed it almost* exactly. So glad I did! We loved it AND
-bonus- it made the house smell amazing, too. Served it with a roasted pumpkin. (*only change was the addition of some grated celery, used fresh sage leaves, and added diced onion and ground clove to the cranberries.)
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm really pleased you enjoyed it Victoria! Thank you for coming back to leave a review. It's much appreciated!
Aminah says
Hi, I'm wondering if the walnuts can be substituted with almonds?
A Virtual Vegan says
I personally wouldn't. Walnuts kind of get a meaty texture when cooked and have way more flavour then almonds. But it would technically work, so if you wanted to you could.
Nan says
Made it for Canadian Thanksgiving and it was a hit.
Also made the Vegan Red Wine Gravy and everyone was surprised that it was Plant-Based.
Thank you.
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm really pleased they were both enjoyed and thanks so much for coming back to leave a review/rating. It's much appreciated!
Elizabeth says
Hi, I was wondering how to approximately how many uncooked lentils will equal 1 cup cooked.?
Thanks
A Virtual Vegan says
It's a little less than half. So for 1 cup of cooked lentils, I'd cook 1/2 a cup of dried. Leftovers freeze well too though and can be thrown straight into soups, stews etc from the freezer.