Check out this vegan chestnut, squash and sweet potato loaf recipe. Precise layering makes this meat-free main look really smart, but it’s actually easy to put together.
Ingredients
3 large onions, grated
100g coconut butter
a pinch dried chilli flakes
a small bunch sage, chopped
180g vac-packed cooked, peeled chestnuts, chopped
100g white breadcrumbs
50g ready-to-eat dried apricots, chopped
4 tbsp cranberry sauce
400g sweet potatoes, peeled
400g butternut squash, peeled
Method
- To make the stuffing, put the onion in a pan with the coconut butter and chilli flakes and cook until the onions have softened. Stir in the sage and cook for 2 minutes.
- Put the chestnuts, breadcrumbs and apricots into a bowl. Stir in half the onion mixture, mix well and season. Mix the rest of the onions with the cranberry sauce.
- Slice the sweet potatoes and squash separately in a food processor or with a mandoline and divide into 3 piles of each. Melt a little more coconut butter and brush the inside of a 900g/2lb loaf tin. Line with a strip of baking paper
- Heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Line the bottom of the tin with a neat overlapping layer of 1/3 of the squash, trimming to fit the tin. This will be the top of the loaf so get this as nice as possible – the other layers you don’t need to worry about so much. Then add a layer of 1/3 of the sweet potato.
- Add a layer of stuffing, then cranberry onions, then the next 1/3 of squash and sweet potato. Add the rest of the stuffing, then another layer of cranberry onions and finish with the last 1/3 of squash and sweet potato.
- Cover with foil, put on a baking tray and bake for 2 hours, or until the sweet potatoes and squash are tender. Leave to sit for 10 minutes before turning out and cutting into slices.
