Easy Vegan Lentil Loaf
I’ll admit, I sometimes find lentil loaves a little dry, and a little bland – but this easy vegan lentil loaf is anything but! It couldn’t be simpler to make (basically: cook the lentils; mix; bake; eat), and it packs huge flavour. Plus, it’s soft and moist in the middle, and perfectly crispy around the edges. It’s perfect served with some mashed potatoes and a bit of gravy!
This simple vegan lentil loaf would make an amazing vegetarian main course for Christmas or Thanksgiving – or just any other cosy Sunday lunch throughout the year.
The recipe makes a good sized vegetarian loaf – enough for about 6 people, so it’s just the thing to serve to guests, and carve up in the centre of your dinner table. Everyone loves a centrepiece, right?
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s an easy recipe that you can make any day of the year, but it also feels special enough for a celebration (perhaps Christmas dinner!).
- The flavours in this vegan lentil loaf are wonderful – although you could easily adapt the recipe to use different spices, or different vegetables, if you prefer.
- Any leftovers keep really well, and can easily be reheated in the microwave.
- We vegetarians don’t need to miss out on the usual roast dinner trimmings, like roast potatoes and gravy – this lentil loaf will sit alongside them beautifully!
🥗 Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe. You’ll also need a few cupboard staples, like oil, salt and pepper. See the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredient quantities.
- red lentils. Unlike some other kinds of lentils, red lentils cook down nice and soft, and they bring a lovely moist texture to the loaf.
- oats
- red onion
- carrot – I grated my carrot into the loaf mixture, but you could dice it nice and small instead, if you’d prefer a chunkier texture.
- garlic
- veggie stock – I used a stock cube, but jelly stock or liquid stock would be fine too.
- herbs and spices – dried thyme, smoked paprika, curry powder and ground cumin. The flavours are delicious, but will still blend in nicely with the other elements of your meal.
- fresh chives
Becca’s Top Tip
If you’re planning to serve your lentil loaf in a different way, feel free to play around with the spices you include. For example, you could try using your favourite Tex-Mex spices, and serve the lentil loaf with some crispy potato wedges and salad instead.
🔄 Ingredient Changes
Feel free to make this recipe your own – it’s really easy to customise with extra vegetables. As long as you don’t add so many extras that they stop the loaf from holding together properly, you should be fine.
You could try adding:
- grated courgette (zucchini)
- frozen peas
- frozen sweetcorn
- sautéed mushrooms (finely diced)
- chopped green beans
- sautéed diced peppers
Different combinations of vegetables will bring different flavours and textures to the lentil loaf, so why not try something new each time!
🔪 Equipment
The only ‘unusual’ equipment you’ll need to make this vegan loaf is a loaf tin (it’s kind of in the name) – nothing too crazy, but it’s something you probably don’t use every day, and you may not already have one if you’re new to cooking.
My loaf tin measures around 9 x 5 inches, and it’s made of metal (rather than ceramic). I find metal tins are best for spreading the heat around the whole loaf, and giving a nice crispy crust.
Here’s a metal loaf tin with great reviews on Amazon UK – or, here’s a set of two on Amazon US.
📋 Instructions
Here’s how to make this recipe – see below for the printable recipe with detailed ingredients and instructions.
Step 1: Begin by cooking the carrot and onion with all the spices, then simmering with the red lentils until it’s all cooked down into a seriously tasty mixture.
Step 2: Mix in some oats, to thicken up the mixture.
Step 3: Spread the mixture into a well oiled loaf tin, and bake until crispy.
Step 4: Carefully turn the lentil loaf out onto a board. As you can see, the front corner of my loaf crumbled ever so slightly, but generally this loaf holds together really well! The metal tin definitely helps to give a crispy crust, which makes the loaf more stable.
Step 5: Slice, and serve.
Becca’s Top Tip
If you’ve got a bit left after your meal, thin slices of leftover lentil loaf make a really amazing vegetarian sandwich filling!
💭 Recipe FAQs
No, you need red lentils for this recipe. They cook down to be a lot softer than brown or green lentils, which helps to hold the loaf together, and also gives the loaf its soft, moist texture.
Everyone’s definition of ‘healthy’ is different, but this vegan lentil loaf is high in fibre and protein, and very low in saturated fat and cholesterol, so that makes it a pretty healthy option in my view.
Yes! Just prepare the mixture and transfer it to the loaf tin, then store it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake it. It will take slightly longer to bake if it’s cold from the fridge.
I prefer using the microwave to reheat leftover lentil loaf. It does lose a little of its crispiness this way, but it’s quick and convenient, and makes sure the loaf doesn’t dry out.
Easy Vegan Lentil Loaf
If you’ve cooked this recipe, don’t forget to leave a star rating!
Print Pin Comment(if you suffer from allergies, please double check all ingredients before eating)
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon oil
- 1 red onion, diced fairly small
- 1 medium carrot, grated
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon mild curry powder
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 200 g (~ 1 cup) dried red lentils
- 1 litre (~ 4 cups) vegetable stock
- 150 g (~ 1 1/2 cups) rolled oats
- Small bunch fresh chives, chopped
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan (not frying pan), and add the diced onion, grated carrot and minced garlic. Cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, until slightly softened.
- Add the smoked paprika, curry powder, thyme, cumin and black pepper, and cook for a further minute or two. If you’re planning to use low sodium stock, you might also want to add a little salt.
- Next, add the red lentils and the veggie stock. Bring to a simmer, and cook (uncovered) for around 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until the lentils are soft. Towards the end of the cooking time, preheat the oven to 180°C (Gas Mark 4 / 350°F).
- Next add the oats and chopped chives, and mix thoroughly to combine. The mixture should be moist, but not runny.
- Thoroughly oil a metal loaf tin (mine measured 9 x 5 inches), and transfer the mixture to the tin. Smooth out the top of the mixture until flat.
- Place in the centre of the oven and cook for around 40 minutes, until golden brown and crispy. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before turning out the loaf and slicing.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
Easy and delicious. I made double quantity and it freezes well
Thanks Annie!
Thank you for this! It’s hard to find burgers and loaves without flour. Tasted great with mashed taters and mushroom gravy.
Thanks so much Lisa!
Tried this today, absolutely delicious, served with mash, steamed sprouts & broccoli with gravy.
Bootiful as we say in Devon, thanks Becca! x
Haha thanks so much Janie! Sounds like a seriously comforting meal!
I can’t believe how good this loaf is. I’ve made loads in my time. It’s so easy to make. I made it to the exact recipe and I’m sure you could change some flavours if you liked but I wouldn’t change anything. When I saw it going into the tin I didn’t think it would set. It came out great. Easy to slice. Thank you so much. This is definitely a keeper.
Thank you so much Mary, that’s so lovely to hear! Glad you enjoyed it! :)
This was wonderful. Tried with mashed pots/veg/gravy and also warm and with a big salad. So much protein and fiber in something that tastes so great is a big win.
Thanks Sarah! Great idea to use the leftovers with salad :)
Too much curry powder. Overpowering.
There is no liquid just a soup stock cube. How are lentils supposed to cook. I added 1 cup water will see what happens.
Hi Donna, the recipe says to use a litre (4 cups) of stock.
Lovely recipe, I added 4 mushrooms and a 3 inch chunk of courgette coz they were left in the fridge. So easy to make ( although my son did have to cycle to the shop to get more porridge as he had made flapjacks without telling me) I found I needed more porridge than the recipe said to absorb the liquid. It was even better reheated the day after and had a firmer texture. A definite keeper for my do again recipe file
Thanks Abby, glad you enjoyed it!
Tried this today. We’re not vegan or vegetarian, but I fancied trying something different. it came out a bit less solid than I expected – crispy on the outside but a bit mushy inside, maybe because my mix was still too wet, maybe because I used a non-metal loaf tin – but was so nice that the two of us ate the full loaf (not made with the full mixture). We have about a third of the mixture left. Can that be frozen to use later?
That’s great to hear Ian! It does stay quite moist in the centre (better than a dry loaf any day) but yes, you do need to make sure the mixture is fairly dry before baking it. I haven’t tried freezing the mixture but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work! Let me know how you get on.
Made this tonight and it was SO yummy! I did use brown lentils instead of red because that’s what I had- I ended up simmering them for an extra 10-15 minutes to get a bit softer and it worked well. I also added ketchup to the top halfway through baking. So good, thank you for this recipe!!!
Thanks Emily! Good to know it works with brown lentils too – I think cooking them a little longer was a good idea :)