Stuffed Meatloaf Roast

Difficulty: Medium
Serves 6

It’s been a minute between recipes but there’s nothing that gets me in the mood to cook than Christmas spirit! While I haven’t gone full-festive just yet, I’ve got to be ahead of you all so that you can start to plan your holiday menus!

There are a tonne of pre-made roasts available these days, which is AWESOME but I’ve heard you loud and clear when you say you wanna make something yourselves. My Stuffed Meatloaf Roast is honestly the perf Christmas main because it’s affordable, easy to make, looks impressive and you can prep it in advance!

Note: It’s important for this recipe that you use a “fresh” vegan mince and not TVP or something frozen. For those in Australia, I used the Herb & Sons brand from Coles but the Alt. Meat Co., Naturli’, V2 and similar brands would work too. Beyond MIGHT work but just be mindful of the excess liquid it tends to produce!

Ingredients

Loaf

• 800g fresh vegan mince (see note above)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon dried mixed herbs
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs

Stuffing

• 6 slices of white bread
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried mixed herbs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup vegan butter
• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 1/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

Glaze

• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon mixed dried herbs
• Pinch of salt

Method

1. To make the loaf component, pop the mince and other loaf ingredients in a large bowl and mix until combined.
2. Lay out a large piece of cling wrap (or similar) and start to evenly spread the loaf mixture out to make a rectangle, pressing down gently until smooth and approximately 1cm high. Don’t worry about it being perfect, you’ll need to do some re-shaping later!
3. Make the stuffing by blending the white bread to make fresh breadcrumbs and combining in a bowl with the onion, dried herbs, salt and hazelnut.
4. In a small bowl, combine the soy milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside.
5. Melt the vegan butter in a frypan before adding the breadcrumb mixture. Toss and cook until the bread starts to brown before adding the soy milk mixture, stirring through.
6. Allow to cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring occasionally before taking off the heat and add the dried cranberries.
7. Using one firmly-packed cup of the stuffing, gently add a line of stuffing down the middle of the short edge of mince rectangle (I don’t know what else to call it), leaving a couple of centimetres at the top and bottom. Kind of like you’re making sushi.
8. Store the leftover stuffing in an air-tight container in the fridge. You can reheat before serving if you’d like!
9. This is the point where you need to be gentle AF. Using the cling wrap, very gently lift the left side to cover the stuffing. Press down gently and peel back the cling wrap.
10. Now, gently lift the right side over and press down gently to form a log shape.
11. Very carefully press down around the log to get it as firm and smooth as possible, before carefully and firmly sealing the log with cling wrap and placing in the fridge for a couple of hours (or overnight.)
12. Combine all of the ingredients for the glaze together in a small bowl. Pop this in the fridge along with the roast until you’re ready to cook.
13. When the time comes to cook your roast, preheat the oven to 180°C and find a metal baking tin a little bigger than your roast (I used a brownie tin!)
14. Grab a sheet of foil and fold it over, ensuring there’s plenty of room at the sides to stick out of the baking tin.
15. Time to be gentle again! Carefully take your roast out of the fridge (it should be nice and firm now) and carefully remove it from the cling wrap before placing it on the foil in your baking tin.
16. Brush the roast liberally with the glaze and place in the oven to cook for 20 minutes. Remove and reglaze before returning to the oven for a further 20 minutes. Remove, reglaze and kick up the temp to 200°C for a final 20 minutes in the oven.
17. Remove from the oven and brush with any remaining glaze. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before gently slicing and serving with your fave vegan gravy and tasty sides!

Don’t forget to check out some of my other festive recipes like my Buttery Hazelnut Carrots, Peppermint Bark Pudding and The Perfect Vegan Amaretto Sour!