Lentil Cheese Loaf

Versatile. Easy. Homely. Cheesy.

***

Food painting artwork

30 x 30cm acrylic and pen on paper. The paper is no ordinary paper, it is beige textured Hahnemuhle 300 gsm 100% alpha cellulose which is acid-free fibre of vegetable origin.

'What is the cow for?' The cheese. 'And the dots?' The lentils. 'Oh.'

Sigh. This was going to be a dot painting. When you cut yourself a slice of this loaf, you will see why. Except that in researching and generating ideas, I came across so many wonderful rock art pictures of cows that I changed my mind. Did you know that there is an entire body of rock/cave art in the Libyan Sahara that is so sophisticated that seen out of context it looks just like modern semi-abstract caricatures? I was happily blown away and this cow is in the style discovered.

By the way, all the food painting artwork is available to own in the Official Art Store.

***

The meatless meals recipe

This is one of those meatless meal recipes that works really well in a meat and three veg type dish. It's also yummy cold and on sandwiches. 

9oz / 255g dry lentils

or

390g cooked lentils

6oz / 175g tasty cheese, grated

1 1/2 onions, diced

some cracked black pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons in total of dried rosemary, sage, thyme - use any or all of these

3oz / 85g dried breadcrumbs

3 eggs, beaten

2 1/4 / 68g butter, melted

Cook lentils if using uncooked ones.

In a large mixing bowl, mix cheese, onion, pepper, herbs and lentils.

Then add breadcrumbs, egg and butter. Mix well.

If the mixture is too sloppy it's ok to add more breadcrumbs.

Grease a loaf tin (approx 7 x 10 x 20cm) REALLY well, or line it with greaseproof paper. This is to make the loaf easy to remove as it has a nasty habit of sticking to the bottom of the tin.

Press the mix into the tin. It needs to be well pressed down otherwise it crumbles apart.

Bake for 1 hour at 170 C

Leave to stand and set for 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven and before trying to remove it from the tin.

Slice and serve!  Feeds 4-6, with other veg.

+++

More vegetarian cookbook goodies

Need help with conversions? Download this handy dandy pdf of cooking conversion charts for every cooking measuring system I could find. It should make your life easier.

Want to check out more vegetarian dinner recipes? They're all in the Table of Contents.

+++