You know, I don't think I ever had a meatloaf in my life. Honestly, I think one of the first times I made a vegan meatloaf, it was probably to get rid of my leftovers!! Anyways, recently I managed to get a pretty nice meatloaf out of my leftover and thought I'd share it with you guys. Read up!
Veggie Meatloaf
Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: 60-75 minutes
Servings: 1 loaf
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup cooked beans (mine were leftovers so they already had flavour, for flavour you can add some paprika, salt, oregano, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder and/or thyme or soy sauce!)
1 1/2 rice
1 cup walnuts
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp italian seasoning
2 rice crackers
1/2 onion chopped
1 carrot chopped in small pieces
1 celery stick chopped in small pieces
Salt to taste
Instructions
Toast your walnuts on medium heat until they reach a nice brown color.
Meanwhile, chop your veggies and add them to a heated pan with some water or cooking oil (I used avocado oil) and let them cook for about 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle some salt to get a nice flavour out of them
Once the walnuts are ready, grind them in your food processor along with the nutritional yeast, paprika and italian seasoning until you have a nice crumbly texture. Set aside.
At this point you can preheat your oven at 350F.
Add your rice cakes to the food processor (no need to clean it) and grind to a flour like consistency. If there's a bit of bits and pieces don't worry it's fine!
Once your veggies are done cooking, grind them in your food processor (still don't clean it) until they are really tiny, you don't want to taste hard pieces of carrot in your loaf.
Once your veggies are chopped finely, add and rice and beans and pulse until you get a thick batter. Do not over pulse or you'll get a really mushy and wet texture which will ruin your loafs texture. If you over process them, don't worry, you can add 1/4 cup of vital wheat gluten or some chickpea flour to help bind the mix a bit more, this might save it.
Now add your base mixture to the grounded walnuts and rice crackers and mix by hand or with a spatula until everything is well incorporated. Once you have a fairly thick and solid 'dough' it's ready to be shaped.
On a baking pan with parchment paper or a little bit of oil, shape your meatloaf into what looks like a loaf of bread. If you want you can use a bread pan but I recommend shaping it because it will cook evenly and be more crispy on the outside.
Place in the oven for about 35-45 minutes, it really depends on your oven.
Take it out and add your favorite glaze on top, I really enjoy this barbecue sauce. Put it back in the oven for 5-15 minutes, once again depending on your oven and your meatloaf's consistency.
If you choose not to put any glaze, you can leave it in the oven for a total of 40-60 minutes. It'll be ready when the outside is nicely brown and slightly crispy.
For more details, look at my How to Meatloaf post where you'll find pictures to every step.
Enjoy!
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