Likable Lentil Loaf

It's been a while since I've gotten my cook on. I had this recipe for veggie meatloaf tucked into my recipe box from forever ago, and since I had some leftover lentils in the fridge to use up, last night marked my big return to the kitchen. I made some modifications along the way based on things I had on hand, (cooking the lentils ahead of time, using leeks instead of scallions, omitting sliced tomatoes, and using a smaller amount of fresh spinach instead of cooked and squeezed) but otherwise I mostly followed the recipe. First up, making the "checca" sauce. Good thing I was able to fit my food processor into our apartment cupboards!

Checca sauce, whir, whir

Then I started on the actual "loaf" ingredients. I cooked ~3/4 cup of millet (instead of brown rice) in water at a 1:3 ratio. Once that was about 3/4 cooked, I added the pulsed mirepoix mixture, (~1/4 bag raw carrots, 2 stalks of celery & 1/2 an onion) the cooked but cool lentils, and about 1/2 cup of frozen corn. I then cooked this mixture the remaining 1/4 of the way, until everything was heated throughout.

Cooking the millet, and pulsed mirepoix

Just prior to finishing the heated mixture, I added to a big bowl ~6oz of torn fresh spinach, ~1 cup of tiny cubed mozzarella, and 1/2 the checca sauce. I mixed in the warmed lentil mixture, threw in 2 lightly beaten eggs, and a little bit of stirring later, bingo bango baby.

Mix, stir, and pack that loaf pan!

I poured this whole mixture into a greased bread pan, covered it with the remaining checca sauce, sprinkled on about ~1/4 cup each of mozzarella and parmesan, and threw my loaf into a 350F oven for ~50 minutes to cook. The apartment started to smell fantastic, and this is what I got! Dinner was done, and certainly worth it. :-)

Baked lentil loaf, and finally dinner