"Good old fashioned home cookin"

Lentil Loaf served with 

good ole mashed potatoes and southern style fried okra

(and don't forget the gravy!)

 This is not a quick meal, between the varying oven temperatures and cooking times but . . .

A few suggestions if you are short on time:

Cook your lentils ahead of time. Even by a day, would be fine. 

AND

Start with making your loaf first.  I opted for this because I knew it would be easy to just reheat a bit last minute if I needed to. Dredge the entire thing in freshly made, hot from the stove-top cashew gravy and then you're really covered.

Vegan "Meat"loaf (gluten-free)

adapted from Tasty Yummies/thank you Leanne Vogel of the Healthful Pursuit blog)

I have made lentil loaves before but this was by far the tastiest I've had.  Then again maybe it was all that gravy. Did I mention the gravy? haha

I suppose you will have to try it for yourself and see. 

Lentil Loaf

Yield: 1 – 9″x5″ loaf

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
• 6 tbsp boiling water
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup of red pepper (I used 1/2 c. each red and orange)
• 1 cup summer squash,julienned
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme, roughly chopped
• 3/4 cup spicy vegan BBQ sauce, recipe below
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 cups cooked green lentils, cooled and split into 1 1/2 cups and 1/2 cup
• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats, split in half *see note
• 1/2 cup almond flour

Preheat the oven to 375F. Add the ground flax seeds to a small bowl, pour the boiling hot water over and stir to combine well. Set aside and allow it to thicken and cool.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the peppers, onion and garlic and sauté for 5-8 minutes until tender. Add in the squash and cook another 3 to 5 minutes until tender, add in the thyme and spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 2 minutes. Add in 1/2 cup of the BBQ sauce, stir to combine and turn off the heat, add salt and pepper to taste, if it needs it.

Process 1 1/2 cups of the cooked lentils and 1/2 cup of the oats in the food processor until smooth (some whole bits may remain, that’s ok). Spoon the mixture into a large bowl, add in the remaining lentils and oats, plus the flax “egg”, almond flour and vegetable mixture. Stir really well to combine. Then get your hands in there, just like you would with a regular meat loaf or meatballs, and make sure it is mixed and mashed together really well.

Spoon the mixture into a parchment paper lined 9″ x 5″ loaf pan, (leave a bit of the parchment paper hanging over so you can easily lift the loaf out when it is cooked). Using your hands, you really want to press it in good. Brush on the remaining 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce over the top.

Bake uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes at 375F. Cool in the pan for about 5, pull the loaf out by grabbing the sides of the parchment paper and lifting up and allow it to cool for another 5 to 10 minutes on a cooking rack. Slice and serve.

note: If you don’t eat grains of any kind, you could try to exclusively use almond flour (adding in more) instead of including the oats, but I haven’t yet tried that myself.

For the Okra:

adapted from a recipe from the Cookin' Cowgirl)

 Oven-Fried Okra

adapted from family .com

    makes 7-1/2 C servings

Love the little flower shape of fresh cut okra; so pretty.  heehee 

3-4 cups of fresh okra, washed and sliced 

OR

16 oz bag frozen sliced okra, thawed {about 3 1/2 cups}

1 tsp Cajun or creole seasoning

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 C yellow corn meal or your favorite GF blend*

Oil spray (I recommend using grapeseed or olive via a sprayer)

1 gallon zip lock bag

1 "egg" (see above recipe for a flax egg)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Turn the zip-lock bag inside out and spray with oil spray.

 If you are using fresh okra that will need to be cut, note that it emits a bit of a wet slime.  I patted each slice a bit to remove some of it but leaving a bit on will help the coating stick that much better.

Pour the cut okra in the bag along with the Cajun seasoning and garlic salt. Seal bag and shake vigorously. Let rest for 10 minutes so more of the juices will extract  from the okra.

Grease or spray a cookie sheet with a thin layer of oil.
Original recipe calls for just simply adding the cornmeal/GF flour blend to the bag and shaking up again and letting rest 10 more minutes. In my previous experience, I found my coating didn't stick as well so I removed the seasoned okra from the bag and placed in a bowl and opted for the ole fashioned tried and true way; simply dip your seasoned okra in the flax egg mixture and then into the flour blend.

Spread out onto your prepared cookie sheet and mist the tops of your okra with another coat of oil spray.

Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven, flip okra over, lightly spray again and return to oven for 20 more minutes. And that's it!

*I used a mixture of almond meal, crushed rice chex meal, nutritional yeast and rice flour seasoned to taste.

All that's left is to prepare your mashed potatoes just the way you like it AND some delicious gravy of your choice.  I highly recommend Ingrid Newkirk's Cashew Gravy from the Compassionate Cook Cookbook.

Blend the following ingredients in a blender and liquify:

2 cups water

1/2 c. cashews

2 tbsp. cornstarch

2 tbsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp salt

I ALSO ADD TO MINE: about 1 tbsp. crumbled sage, 1 tbsp. tamari and 2 tbsp. garlic powder

In a medium saute pan, over medium heat, heat the gravy, stirring constantly, until nice and thick.  Add in  more water (or nut milk, one tbsp at a time) if it becomes too thick.  Keep warm until ready to serve.

AND Enjoy!! You've worked hard for this meal and you deserve it!

LOVE AND LIGHT!

Amber