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:
Recipe
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 ________________________________________________________
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!
Melanie McDonald says
So sorry about that Marie. I'm looking into it as we speak. Was this on mobile? Or desktop? It will help me find out what's going on.
Marie says
Hi Mel,
It was on my phone. Today it’s not doing it. I tried other recipes and it seemed to occur with only this recipe. It’s fine now!
I have a question, is 1 cup of cooked lentils 1 cup then cooked? Or 1 cup after cooking? Your notes say lentils triple in size. Should I cook 1/3 cup to come out to 1 cup cooked? Whoops, I think I figured it out. I’ll go for 1 cup dry and then cook.
Melanie McDonald says
I think we worked out what it was and it should be fixed now.
As for the lentils, as per the ingredients it's "1 cup cooked red lentils" and the same for the green. Not 1 cup of each dried.
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.
Jayne says
Can you use ready prepared lentils in this recipe?
Melanie McDonald says
The recipe calls for cooked lentils.
Janet says
I made this for Christmas and we shared some with a friend who is not vegan but is an accomplished cook. He was very impressed:-). It was delicious with the red wine gravy and made tasty sandwiches later. I'll be making the one again.
Mark says
Loved this on Christmas. Everyone else had turkey and we took this with our own gravy. The red wine one you have. We ended up having to defend both as the non-vegans tried to steal it.
Jessica says
Made this but the cranberry base burned to a crisp. There was no way to tell it was burning since it’s on the bottom of the pan. Cranberries are one of my favorite foods, and expensive as well, so peeling off the burnt cranberry layer and throwing them out was devastating.
I’m not sure why they burned so bad but it was like a charcoal layer.
Teresa says
What can I substitute the flaxseed with? Will chia seeds or hemp seed work? Thanks so much. Can't wait to make this!
Melanie McDonald says
I don't recommend using anything else. Ground flax is what gives the best results.
Sarah says
Hello from Italy, I really want to make this but I can only find dried cranberries where I live, ant suggestions, please.
Thanks, Sarah. x
Melanie McDonald says
Dried cranberries won't work for this recipe. You could just use ready-made cranberry sauce instead if you can get it. Or make this "meatloaf". It's basically the same but doesn't have the cranberry top and comes with gravy. https://avirtualvegan.com/vegan-meatloaf-with-gravy/
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😁