I did it.
I crossed the border into hippy territory.
How? First, by deciding to make a meatloaf, sans meat. I have absolutely no clue why I desired to make meatless loaf, other than the fact that I was curious when I saw the recipe here. I was intrigued - could this really taste the same as the many previous childhood loaves that I'd eaten before? Or would it turn out tasting too 'crunchy granola'?
As I got the ingredients out, I realized I had a choice of lentils. Red, green, brown, yellow? I stuck with the third, thinking that it would increase the visual appeal. I was cooking this for my folks, too, ya know - so it had to be at least sort of visually similar. As I was perusing the ingredients list I then decided that I was going to throw a lot of the ingredients out - I was going to make this exactly the same as a regular meatloaf. More importantly, how was I going to get a lot of umami out of this thing for a meaty sensation?
Since lentils themselves supposedly have some earthy umami in them, I had a good start. I heard that combining 2 or 3 umami sources in one dish magnifies the sensation, so i threw in a four ounce can of portobella mushrooms (chopped). Hard cheeses have a hell of a lot of umami as well, so I added a 1/4 cup grated parmesan. I finished this off with some worcestershire (also high in that delicious element).
Here's what I did.
-2 cups cooked lentils
-6 slices bread (torn)
-2 eggs
-1/4 cup of italian breadcrumbs
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-1/2 of a large white onion, chopped
-1 T worcestershire sauce
-1/4 cup parmesan or other hard cheese (I used Locatelli)
-a couple squirts of ketchup
-salt and pepper to taste (probably not so much salt, b/c the breadcrumbs, ketchup and W. sauce have it in there already)
-2 T onion soup mix
-1/2 cup water
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2) In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together. The feeling of raw eggs and cooked lentils was almost as bad as mixing the former with ground beef. YECH.
3) Check to make sure dachshunds are still cute.
4) Scoop that loaf mixture into that greased pan. Cover the top with more ketchup. Bake for 40 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
Result:
Oh my god, was this good. It tasted like meatloaf, only a little bit earthier. And here's the kicker - lentils are incredily good for you. High in fiber, a great source of protein when combined with brown rice or whole grains, and a ton of B-vitamins. And they don't need to be soaked overnight, just toss 'em immediately into a pot of boiling water or broth. They're high in iron, zinc and calcium (important things found in red meat!). The other thing - they are CHEAP. AS. HELL. You can find lentils in your grocery store right now - probably for 99 cents a pound.
I'm going to try to substitute lentils for ground meat one night a week from now on, I'll let you know how it turns out.
c
