This is a surprisingly delicious vegetarian alternative to a roast dinner! It works with green lentils instead of red which give it a more “meaty” flavour. You can use any strong cheese, I recommend the Woodland Dairy Sheep Wensleydale or St Helen’s Farm Goat’s cheese. It’s good hot or cold and reheats well. It’s important to have some greaseproof paper on hand to line the tin as otherwise it’s very messy to get the roast out of the tin!
- 1 mug red lentils
- 2 mugs stock
- 2 slices bread (can be gluten free) made into crumbs (food processor best for this)
- 4 oz grated strong cheese
- 1 leek or onion peeled and finely chopped
- 4oz mushrooms peeled and finely chopped
- 2 beaten eggs
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon each dry mustard, ground cumin & ground coriander
- 2 tablespoons tomato puree
- 1 handful of fresh or 1 teaspoon of dried herbs of choice (e.g. coriander, thyme, oregano)
- Black or white pepper
Put the lentils, onion (or leek), stock, tomato puree, mustard, cumin and coriander into a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for about 20 minutes until all of the liquid is absorbed (if it’s not boil rapidly to reduce or drain the excess stock off).
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and line with greaseproof paper a 2lb loaf tin (if you haven’t got one, you can use a couple of cake tins, the deeper the better).
Add to the lentil mixture, the mushrooms, breadcrumbs, cheese, pepper and herbs. Bind in the beaten eggs and lemon juice. Smooth into the prepared tin and bake for about one hour.
For a lovely colourful effect when sliced (and an extra veg portion), you can add a layer of chopped red roast pepper or some raw spinach to the middle of the roast before cooking. Enjoy with onion gravy or a tomato sauce & roast parsnips!
This recipe is shared with the kind permission of Viv, chef at the Flower Essence retreat centre on the Isle of Gigha, Scotland.