Barbecue No-Meat Loaf and a Greek Salad

As a member of The Vegetarian Resource Group I receive their Vegetarian Journal four times a year. VRG is a nonprofit organization that educates public about vegetarianism and interrelated issues of heath, nutrition, ecology, ethics, and world hunger. Their magazine is filled with recipes, vegan nutritional info, cooking tips, and more. They also have a very informative website. I received the newest issue few days ago. One of the recipe theme was "Baby Boomer Cooking" which was a healthy vegan take on 1950s favorites. I wanted to try a recipe for Barbecue No-Meat Loaf (by Debra Daniels-Zeller, Volume XXIX, No 4, page 16).

The Barbecue No-Meat Loaf was made with lentils (I love lentils, they are yummy, they don't always require presoaking and they are packed with protein), potatoes, garlic, sage, barbecue sauce (I used Annie's Naturals Organic BBQ Smoky Maple Sauce), onions, carrots, nuts, and bread crumbs. The recipe didn't call for any salt, but before I baked it I tasted it and I added salt to the lentil mixture. I was a bit confused about the potatoes since the recipe called for roughly cut potatoes that were cooked with the lentils until soft. It didn't say if the potatoes were supposed to be mashed or left in cubes before creating the loaf. I thought that the loaf would not hold together very well if it had big cunks of potatoes, plus it would not look very good as a loaf with chunks of potatoes falling out of the loaf. Therefore I decided to mash the potatoes and part of the lentils. The loaf turned out to be great, the barbecue sauce, sage and garlic gave it a lot of flavor. I served the loaf with mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts. I cooked potatoes and brussel sprouts together (half and half) in a boiling water until very tender (about 20-25 minutes), then mashed it together with a little bit of warm soy milk, vegan butter, salt and Old Bay Seasoning.

I am looking forward to try some other recipes from the Journal, such as the Guatemalan Cucumber Soup.