I first cooked this dish at Christmas just past, in an effort to explore the options beyond the traditional turkey and ham that we have every single year. It was a huge success and the strange thing about this dish is, it actually feels quite meaty, kind of like a decent stuffing. The meat eaters that had it at Christmas all said they really enjoyed it but I’m not sure if they were just being polite. Anyway, cook this for yourself and you decide. You need about an hour to get this on to the table.

Ingredients & Method

Part 1

• Butternut squash (this is the main ingredient)
• 2 carrots
• 1 leek or 2 sticks of  celery
• 1 red onion (white will do)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 large mushrooms
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• A pinch of cayenne pepper

Dice up all the above veg, add to a big hot pan and cook down for about 10 minutes. If your hob has dials of 1 – 10, set this at about a 7. Once cooked down a bit, all the paprika and pepper so that it sticks well to the veg.

Part 2

• 150g of mixed nuts
• 150g cooked red split lentils
• 100g quinoa or 150g breadcrumbs
• 5 sun-dried  tomatoes
• 1/2 cup of dried fruit like apricots, cranberries etc.
• 2 eggs
• Salt & pepper

Blend the mixed nuts up in a food processor or just wrap them up in a tea towel and smash them off the chopping board to crush them up a bit. You still want some chunky nut pieces in there.

Add all the cooked veg from Part 1 into a large mixing bowl

Add all the ingredients from Part 2 in on top of the veg and mix well until the egg starts to bind all the ingredients together.

Get 2 loaf tins, grease the sides with some dairy free butter and line with baking paper. Layer in the mix into each of the tins until full. Press down on the mix in the tins frequently so you have no air pockets in the loaf.

Pop both tins in the oven at 180 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes until golden brown. Leave them to cool down before slicing them. Enjoy!