This isn’t the prettiest meal I’ve made, but it was delicious. I was stuck trying to think of what to make for our virtual Passover Seder. Some people don’t eat lentils on Passover, but we do….

I spent the afternoon researching various recipes, and then came up with something that worked for me, and the holiday. Here’s what I did.

Ingredients:

2 celery stalks

1 shallot

2 carrots (peeled and chopped)

2 large white mushrooms, chopped

2 large white mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup matzoh meal (I didn’t have any; so I put a slice of matzah in the food processor and made my own)

1/2 cup lentils

1 cup water

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

salt/pepper

1 teaspoon dijon mustard (optional, some don’t use mustard on Passover)

1 bay leaf

HOW:

Pre-heat oven to 375.

First, I cooked the lentils in a cup of water, with a bay leaf. While that was happening, I chopped the vegetables, then put them in the food processor until they were kind of like a chunky paste.  I left out two of the mushrooms and thinly sliced those.

I sautéed the vegetable mash with the thinly sliced mushrooms in a tablespoon of olive oil.  I added a dash of balsamic vinegar and about a teaspoon of dijon mustard .

You can see from the picture above that I didn’t mash the carrots that well… but I thought they’d add a bit of texture to the loaf.

Once the lentils were ready, I drained out the excess water and removed the bay leaf. I put half of the lentils into the food processor and mashed those into a paste. I added the cooked vegetables, the lentil mash, the other lentils and the matzoh meal into a bowl, and mixed as well as possible.

I greased a loaf pan with a bit of olive oil, then added the mixture, patting it down into a firmly shaped loaf. For the topping, I took the tomato paste and balsamic vinegar, mixed that up, added a bit of salt and pepper, and spread it onto the loaf. I could have used a bit more tomato paste! And maybe added something else for a bit more flavour.

Cooked the loaf for 40 minutes or so, in an oven preheated to 375.

For the side dish, I made butternut squash (topped with a teaspoon of Earth Balance butter substitute and a half teaspoon of maple syrup), cooked for about half an hour. I also boiled some frozen green beans.

And that was that! Virtual seder preceded the meal with relatives across the country.

And then, it was our time to Enjoy!