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!
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If you've made and loved my Vegan Meatloaf with Gravy then you're going to love this Mushroom Lentil Loaf with Cranberries! It's an adapted festive version especially for the holidays.
The juicy red cranberries make it look so pretty and festive, 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.
This recipe is so good I've 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 then go check it out!
How To Make Vegan Lentil Loaf
Can't wait to make this delish vegan holiday dish? The full printable recipe is below, but first, let me walk you through the steps to create this recipe in your own kitchen with great results.
Note that this recipe involves quite a lot of chopping, but if you have a food processor it can all be done in minutes. It's definitely my preferred method and pretty much the only thing I use a knife for is cutting the ends off the onion. Everything else just gets thrown in the food processor and pulsed until finely chopped. It couldn't be easier!
1 - COMBINE THE MUSHROOM LENTIL LOAF INGREDIENTS - Add everything except the fresh cranberries and sugar to a large bowl and combine really well. I find clean hands work best here.
2 - MAKE THE CRANBERRY TOPPING - Simple combine the cranberries and sugar in a pan and heat until the sugar is dissolved.
3 - START TO ASSEMBLE - Add the sugary cranberries to a lined loaf pan.
4 - ADD THE NEXT LAYER - Pile on the mushroom lentil mixture and pack it in very tightly. At this stage it can be refrigerated for a couple of days or baked right away.
5 - BAKE - Cook until golden, crusty, and jammy, then leave to rest in the pan for 15 to 30 minutes.
Serving Suggestions
This Mushroom Lentil Loaf with Cranberries will make a wonderful addition to your Christmas or Thanksgiving meal, and family dinners. 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.
My favorite accompaniments include:
Leftovers are really delicious thinly sliced in sandwiches, or with chutneys, pickles, crusty bread etc.
Making Ahead
This lentil loaf can be prepared and assembled up to 3 days aheads. Once in the loaf pan, wrap really well in clingwrap or pop it in a large airtight container, and refrigerate. Bake for an extra 5 minutes.
Storing Leftovers
Wrap leftovers or put them in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. Reheat individual slices in a skillet on the stovetop or reheat larger amounts wrapped in foil in the oven.
Recipe FAQs
I have not tried freezing it but I think because of the large amount of mushrooms it would freeze better after baking. Then defrost overnight in the refrigerator and reheat in the oven for about 30 minutes or until heated through.
For best results I recommend following the recipe as written. I have not tested this recipe with anything other than mushrooms.
Don't soak the lentils prior to cooking. Rinse them in a sieve with fresh water to remove any dust or debris. Lentils will approximately double in volume once cooked so you will need about ½ a cup of dried red lentils and ½ a cup of dried green lentils. Cover with plenty of water, bring to a boil, cover tightly, reduce heat to low and simmer until they are tender.
For green 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 before using in the recipe. They can be cooked ahead and stored drained in the fridge for up to 3 days.
More Holiday Entrees
If you love this Mushroom Lentil Loaf, then you might also enjoy:
Recipe
Mushroom Lentil Loaf with Cranberries
Author:Ingredients
- 1 small onion , chopped finely
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 cup (198 grams) cooked red lentils , measured after cooking
- 1 cup (198 grams) cooked green lentils , measured after cooking
- 3 cups (226 grams) finely chopped mushrooms
- ½ cup (62 grams) chopped walnuts
- ½ cup (8 tablespoons) ground flax seed , it must be ground not whole
- ½ cup (62 grams) flour , all purpose (plain flour in the UK), oat, rice, spelt or wholewheat
- 1 very packed cup (75 grams) breadcrumbs (gluten-free if necessary)
- ½ cup (70 grams) dried cranberries
- ½ large apple , grated (no need to peel)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce , or Tamari, or coconut aminos
For the cranberry topping
- 2 cups (200 grams fresh or frozen cranberries
- 4 tablespoons white or cane sugar , not brown sugar or coconut sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C) and 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.
- Add all of the ingredients (except the fresh/frozen cranberries and sugar) to a very large bowl and mix until really well combined. I like to use clean hands to scrunch it all together and mix it. Set aside.
- 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.
- Spoon the sugary cranberries into the loaf pan. You don't have to wait for them to cool down but be careful as the sugary liquid will be very hot. Even them out with a spoon.
- Pack the lentil loaf mixture on the top of the cranberries. Really push it down all over and make sure it is even on the top. It will seem like lots of mixture but it will fit well once you compact it.
- Place the loaf pan on a baking tray (just in case the cranberry liquid spills over) and bake for 1 hour to 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.
- 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 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
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lynn says
can you sub frozen for the dried cranberries?
Melanie McDonald says
No.They are there for texture and bites of sweetness. You'd be better of omitting them than using frozen/fresh cranberries. There are enough of them on the top already and they would add to much sharpness and potentially affect how the loaf holds together (they would add extra moisture).
Bill says
Fabulous recipe. Freezes well. Made this for thanksgiving and froze the left overs [our kids do not eat vegetarian :-( ]. Took it out in March, and it was just as fabulous. Very tasty combination of flavors.
Darren says
Do you cook the mushrooms before putting them in the large bowl?
Melanie McDonald says
No they go in raw. All of the necessary steps are listed.
Virginia says
Looks yummy! Is there a substitution for the mushrooms?
Melanie McDonald says
There are so many of them in this recipe that I wouldn't recommend subbing them for anything else.
LK says
Just finished making this and this is an absolute YES! I used lentil + daal. The flavors are incredible, it’s hearty and good amount of protein per serving.
I’ve never made a loaf before and excited to have my meat eater friends try it!
Nanna says
This recipe sounds amazing, I'm going to make it for Christmas! Only one question; are the mushrooms going in to the mixture raw? You don't fry them before?
Melanie McDonald says
Follow the recipe as written. You don't need to pre-cook the mushrooms.
Chefyl says
My rating isn't for the dish as written--i had to play fast and lose with the ingredients (subbing in a pea/lentil/barley blend being the main change, but there were others). I was forced to choose a rating, tho, and I think the recipe deserves a 5 because it was very forgiving of all of my modifications-- it came out not just edible, but tasty. I can see scope for future riffing, as well!
Robyn says
I couldn’t buy fresh or frozen cranberries so rehydrated dried cranberries which already had sugar in them.
I wish I’d cut the walnuts smaller or put the lot in a food processor. I ended up with 2 cups of mixture that wouldn’t fit into my loaf tin (as well as 2cups of cooked lentils).
It turned out better than I expected as it seemed really dry. I’ll try it before Christmas.
Robyn says
WOuld this be suitable to eat cold?
Melanie McDonald says
I personally prefer it warm as part of a meal, but I do enjoy leftovers cold in sandwiches etc.
JEANETTE M HERNANDEZ says
I've not made this yet. Why only white sugar? I usually sweeten dishes with date paste.
Melanie McDonald says
You could use white, but you can also use cane sugar. It's because darker sugars will change the color and flavor of the cranberry topping. I definitely don't recommend using date paste. It would look terrible, the flavor wouldn't complement the loaf at all, and it would give the cranberry top the wrong texture. It needs sugar to be jammy. For best results I recommend following the recipe as written.
Kelly says
My daughters are vegetarian, and this recipe was/is a game changer for pulling together Traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. It is so pretty on the plate, and so delicious. I eat more of the loaf (with vegan Mushroom gravy) than I do Turkey. No Turkey Coma afterwards, huge plus
Maureen Boultby says
Made this today, it is delicious, lot of chopping, next time I will use the food processor. Had your vegan gravy with it which is the best vegan gravy I have tried. Thank you for all your lovely recipes and all the hard work you put in, every recipe I have tried has been great and turned out well
Melanie McDonald says
So pleased you enjoyed it, Maureen! I always use my food processor when I make it. It cuts out a lot of work!
Laima Martinskis says
Dear Mel,
this is great recipe. I've done it before and it turned out great.
However, this time is came out soggy, looked like undercooked. I baked it 40 min more, but nothing improved. The outside was brown and crusty, and visually it looked done. Inside was still wet and soggy. What went wrong?
I't's not the oven.
Thank you for your wonderful recipes!
Laima
Melanie McDonald says
Sorry, you didn't get the best outcome. It's impossible to say what went wrong without having been there, but this is a really solid, well-loved recipe, and if it turned out fine when you made it before then it tells me that something probably got accidentally mismeasured or missed from the ingredients list this time. The only other thing I can think of if everything else was followed 100% is that perhaps the lentils were accidentally overcooked and soggy/waterlogged when they went in. Hope that helps!
Laima says
Thank you, it helped! I think that my red lentils were too watery. At least, now I'll know. This is really great recipe and I love it, love it, love it!
JenFW says
I LOVE this recipe! I used gluten-free flour and subbed oats for the breadcrumbs, and it all worked out fine. The moist, firm texture pleased my meat-preferring husband, and the rosemary-sage-thyme plus cranberries gave the loaf a familiar Thanksgiving flavor.
While I might use a food processor when I make this at home, I did fine chopping everything by hand and then mashing it together with my fingers. I chopped everything finely, as instructed.
I will definitely make this again--for holidays and in between. Thanks!
Melanie McDonald says
I'm so pleased you enjoyed it Jen and thanks for taking the time to leave a review. It's much appreciated!
Keith G says
I made it! I just left a comment about the vegan green bean casserole, which I also made, and I mentioned this recipe there as well. I have to say, based on the taste alone, this is an absolute five star recipe! You have done a great job of assembling some wonderful flavor profiles here that come to produce an end result that is a replacement for both turkey and stuffing, and even the cranberry sauce. It’s almost a meal in itself. That being said, I want to emphasize 100 times the need to use a food processor for this recipe. Without it, it’s utter insanity. I did not have one to use, and I don’t think I would ever try it again without it. The prep time is just hours of chopping. I’m going to look into getting a food processor again, I don’t even know what happened to the last one! Once I rectify that situation, I definitely wanna make this again. Thank you so much for putting together this recipe, and making it available to us. It is a definite winner!
Fern Girdlestone says
Recipe looks delicious and I'll be trying it - if I don't get too frustrated by all the advertisements everywhere!!!
Melanie McDonald says
Without the advertisements there would be no website and no FREE recipe.