Artichoke Lentil Loaf

I am always looking for new and interesting recipes for burgers and loafs.   I adapted this recipe from the one on Dr. Fuhrman's website.  My family find a lot of my recipes bland; which basically means they are missing the salty taste that is prevalent in all foods in our american diet, so I try to spice up recipes I find online to make them more flavorful.  I feel very sad when they add salt to the foods I cook but I also understand it takes a while to adapt to recipes without salt.  As a result, the recipe has a little more zing in it than the original one.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup diced red onion

6 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups finely chopped mushrooms

1/4 cup diced celery

1-2 minced jalapeno peppers, seeded and cored

2 tablespoons minced parsley

2 tablespoons minced basil

2 teaspoons italian seasoning

2 TBSPs porcini mushroom powder (ground dried porcini mushrooms)

1 1/2 cups cooked french lentils

6 oz frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and mashed (I throw them in my cuisinart to shred them)

1/3 cup finely chopped raw pecans or walnuts

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup tomato paste (plus extra reserved for top of loaf)

1 TBSP dijon mustard

2 TBSPs adobo sauce or ketchup (optional) 

2 tablespoons arrowroot powder (or whole wheat flour)

2 tablespoons no-salt seasoning blend like Spike, adjusted to taste

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a loaf pan with pam or lightly oil pan with olive oil. 

Cook lentils while prepping vegetables.  Add 2 tablespoons water to a sauté pan.  Add the onion, garlic, and jalepenos and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add the mushrooms, a little more water if mixture is dry, cover, and cook until mushrooms are tender.  Add celery, parsley, basil, italian seasoning, and porcini mushroom powder and sauté for about 5 more minutes.  Add just enough water to keep mixture from sticking to the pan, if needed.  

Place cooked veggies, lentils, artichoke hearts, nuts, rolled oats, tomato paste, mustard, adobo sauce, arrowroot powder, seasoning, and pepper in a bowl and mix together.  I put everything in my cuisinart and use the pulse button to blend the mixture but am careful not to puree it.   I don't like my loaf to be too chunky but I don't want it mushy either.  After I pulse it a few times, I make sure mixture is well blended and then put it all into the prepared loaf pan.  Press mixure evenly into pan.  Smooth a layer of tomato paste over the top of the loaf and put it in the oven.  Cook for 1 hour.  Allow to cool enough to handle the pan and then cut and serve.