Veggie Meatloaf (Vegetarian Nut Roast)

This super-savory, incredibly delicious veggie meatloaf (nut loaf) makes a crowd-pleasing vegetarian holiday centerpiece and an equally great make-ahead weeknight dinner with lots of leftovers.

Why we love this recipe, and why it works

Unless you’re a real live hippie from the 1960s or you’re British (in which case you might call this a nut roast), you may not be familiar with nut loaf. Don’t let that scare you away. You guys, this is really good food. And it’s a great vegetarian main dish option for the holidays. It’s always a big hit at our Christmases, even among carnivores — and even when I make a stuffed pork loin, too.

Veggie meatloaf is:

• Savory, satisfying, and dare I say meaty
• Both comforting and elevated
• Packed with protein and fiber
• A really good fit with a wide variety of holiday flavors

I first published this recipe here back in 2015. I’ve since updated the post for clarity, but the recipe remains the same. If you’re a fan of old-school food blog narrative, you can scroll below the recipe card to read some of the original post.

What you’ll need

Here’s a glance at the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe. It looks like a lot, but it’s nothing fancy.

• I’ve pictured a slightly fancy blend here since it’s what I had on hand, but you’ll need two cups of any variety of cooked brown rice.
• Cremini mushrooms provide tons of meaty flavor without too much moisture. I’ve pictured them here already pulsed to a mince in the food processor.
• A combination of walnuts and cashews bakes into the mix in an almost magical way. Since you’ll be grinding them up anyway, feel free to buy pieces rather than whole nuts if they’re less expensive.
• Smoked gouda, fontina, cottage cheese, and parmesan add multiple layers of umami. They blend with the rest of the flavors to create a savory whole, without asserting themselves directly.
• Use any dry red wine that you like to drink, and serve the rest of the bottle with dinner.
• I love the exact combination of dried herbs that we use here (thyme, oregano, basil, tarragon, and sage). If you’re looking for a shortcut or don’t have all these ingredients in your pantry, you would also get a great result by substituting 2 tablespoons Herbes de Provence.

How to make it

Here’s an overview of the steps you’ll take to make a phenomenal veggie meatloaf. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.

1. Prep all the ingredients. If you have a food processor, use it to mince the mushrooms and nuts and shred the cheeses in no time. If you don’t have one, you can chop the mushrooms by hand, shred the cheeses on a box grater, and place the nuts into a gallon-size zip-top bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Then you’ll gradually cook the onion, mushrooms, garlic, and herbs in the olive oil.
2. Stir together the cooked rice and nuts in a large mixing bowl. In a smaller bowl, beat together the eggs and cottage cheese, then stir them into the nut mixture.
3. Add the cooked mushroom mixture, the cheeses, parsley, and seasonings to the bowl and mix to combine well.
4. Bake in a large, parchment-lined loaf pan at 350°F for an hour. Let it cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan, slicing, and serving.

Expert tips and FAQs

What to serve with veggie meatloaf

Nut loaf pairs well with a wide variety of flavors, but it begs for the classics. I love to serve it with vegetarian gravy and:

Mashed potatoes

• Small batch
• Really big batch
• Boursin
• Or try creamy mashed cauliflower

A classic vegetable side dish

• Crispy roasted broccolini
• Garlicky sautéed spinach
• Zucchini and onions
• Haricots verts

A little something sweet

• Applesauce
• Cranberry sauce

More favorite holiday vegetarian main dishes

• Spinach and portobello lasagna
• Chanterelle and Gruyere bread pudding
• Stuffed shells
• Jamie Oliver’s vegan shepherd’s pie
• Acorn squash bechamel lasagna

Here’s some text from the original 2015 post

Yesterday evening at 5:23 we were slipping pungent, silky pieces of Taleggio onto a few crackers for a snack and settling in to start our homework. Then, in a surge, the lights went out, and everything that beeps was beeping. We heard a noise so loud that I’m convinced I saw it. And the telephone pole with the transformer across the street had burst into flame. 

In the time it took me to eye the wires connecting the pole to our daughters’ bedroom and think, “Huh…that’s prolly not great,” the town managed to deploy four emergency vehicles. They arrived almost before it happened. I have a bit of a complicated relationship with our little town, but one thing I know for sure is that we are incredibly lucky to have our stellar emergency response teams.

While we slept under extra layers in a dark and chilly house, a throng of police, firefighters and folks from the power company worked through the night in driving rain to put up a brand new telephone pole. I have no idea what they did — which may be obvious from the way I’m calling the thing a damn telephone pole — but it brought our utilities back before we finished breakfast.

And with 30 minutes to spare before the kids started walking to school, they cleared away all the chaos and left us once again in Pleasantville, fumbling with our awkward, bulky gratitude. 

Let me just diffuse the tension by putting it out there: Thank you to all of you good-crazy people the world over who move in the direction of danger as the rest of us advise our kids to hang out in the back half of the house. We notice you. You never cease to amaze us, and you never will. 

Reasons to make nut loaf

We all do what we can. And while you make the world safer, sometimes I make nut loaf while contemplating whether I somehow caused this fire by doing one too many loads of laundry. I think we can all agree that neither nut loaf nor misplaced self-doubt is as important as public safety. And yet at least one of those things is kinda major. (Psst…it’s the nut loaf.) Have you tried it? You should. 

Serve this umami-rich loaf of love with simple mashed potatoes, The Best Vegetarian Gravy, and an old-school vegetable like a tangle of springy green beans. Maybe watch an episode of Mad Men afterwards, or go thank a public servant. Like a jumble of mushrooms and nuts, herbs and cheeses, it’ll all come together beautifully in the end.

Trust me.