Vegan Lentil Rounds

this For later use

The best vegan lentil rounds, full of veggies, lentils, and other healthy goodness.

Ingredients
1 tin of brown lentils (drained)
½ onion, diced
3 carrots, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
¾ cup diced red and yellow pepper
1½ cup diced brown mushrooms
2 heaped tablespoons store-bought minced garlic
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 heaped tablespoon sweet chili dipping sauce
2 tablespoons ground flax meal
1 tablespoon dried parsley
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
½ cup oat bran
½ cup fresh breadcrumbs
¼ cup ketchup
Coconut sugar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350F.
I used double the above-listed quantity and baked it in a 9 x 12″ and 2″ deep cake pan.
Line your baking pan with parchment paper.
Prepare and cut up all the veggies in small chunks and keep separate.
In a large skillet over medium heat, saute onion, carrots, celery, and pepper till half cooked.
Add garlic and mushrooms with a pinch of salt and pepper and continue to saute until softened.
Drain the liquid and discard, do not use it as it will make the rounds soggy and fall apart.
In a food processor, pulse together the lentils, ½+ of the sauteed vegetables, tomato paste, sweet chili dipping sauce, flax meal, parsley, salt, pepper, oat bran, and fresh breadcrumbs.
Rather do it in batches, as it’s much easier to handle especially if your food processor is small like mine.
DO NOT puree the mixture, but blend into a chunky dough.
Add the remainder of the veggies for texture. This is also the reason why I kept ¼-½ of the veggies aside to add to the mixture after I blended it.
This turned out to be a good choice, as I loved the chunks of veggies as texture and for color.
Scoop the “dough” into the prepared baking tray and flatten it with the back of a wooden spoon.
Bake for ±35 minutes at 350F.
Remove from the oven and spread ketchup over the top. If you like more ketchup feel free to add a tad more.
Liberally sprinkle with coconut sugar to help the topping to caramelize.
Bake for another 10+ minutes.
Leave the dish in the pan to cool as it needs to set.
As mentioned, I lined the pan with parchment paper, make sure to leave at least a 3″ overhang to grab, and use this as a ‘handle’ to pick it up, again a good decision, as it made it easier to lift it out of the baking pan.
You can either cut it in slices or as I did use a scone cutter and cut out rounds the next day.
I decided to heat it up in the microwave, to prevent it from drying out in the oven.
Dish up and decorate as desired with fresh green herbs and enjoy as part of your Vegan Christmas meal.

Recipe credit: Yummy Mummy Kitchen
Modified, prepared, tried, and tested Esme Slabs