Tomato Glaze-Crusted “Meat”loaf Casserole

Post by Megan Stulberg

I’ve been working like a crazy person lately, hence the delay in writing up recipe posts. But hey, a girl’s got to eat! If there’s a silver lining from this, it’s just that I have tons of recipes up my sleeve for y’all in the near future.

This was my Christmas day feast, yum yum. Being the only vegan in a family of carnivores is both good and bad. The bad is that they don’t want to eat the food I make, the good is…more for me! I ended up eating leftovers for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Boxing Day. Not a single regret.

I paired this dish with my sweet potato mash that’s already up on Vegan Girlfriend here, as well as some roasted asparagus! I also paired it with a gravy/stuffing hybrid that I’ve nicknamed “gruffing” that was oh-so-good but honestly was an accident so I don’t have a write-up for that.

Ingredients…

For the loaf: 

• 1 1/4 cup gluten-free vegetable broth
• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1 cup canned lentils
• 1/4 cup cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1/4 cup roasted nuts of your choice (I chose walnut)
• 1/4 cup 100% maple syrup
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 1/2 carrot, chopped
• 1/2 white onion, diced
• 3 tbsp gluten-free soy sauce
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 2 tbsp cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 1 tbsp basil
• Cracked pepper and sea salt, to taste

For the glaze: 

• 1/2 cup organic ketchup (or tomato paste)
• 1/4 cup 100% maple syrup
• Pinch of sea salt

Directions…

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Rinse canned lentils. Set aside.
3. Heat olive oil in large saucepan on medium heat. Once oil begins to sizzle, add garlic and onion. Sauté 5 minutes until brown, then add carrot, celery and mushrooms. Add broth at this point.
4. Use a high-speed blender or food processor to chop toasted nuts into small pieces.
5. Add sautéed veggies to blender, along with rice flour, flax, maple syrup, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, thyme, basil, sea salt, pepper and of course, the lentils! Pulse until coarsely combined. If the mixture needs to be thickened, add additional brown rice flour by the tbsp and combine by hand. Be careful not to over-process, you want some chunks of veggies and stuff to stay intact for texture.
6. Coat casserole dish with olive oil to prevent sticking. Use large spoon to transfer mixture from food processor to casserole dish, then flatten out.
7. Bake casserole dish in oven for a total of 40 minutes.
8. During this time, make the glaze! Simply whisk organic ketchup, maple syrup and sea salt together in bowl.
9. Remove casserole dish from oven after 15 minutes, add glaze in a thin layer on top, then place back in oven covered and let bake for remaining 30 minutes.
10. Wait for dish to cool, then slice and serve with side dishes accordingly.

Dig in! Serve warm, makes 4-6 servings.