This amazing savoury Special K roast is made with some surprising ingredients, but it all comes together in a beautiful vegetarian meat loaf that really hits the spot in terms of flavour and texture.

The first time I made this Special K roast back in 2012, the vegetarians in the family agreed it was the first time they felt like they were having a proper Sunday lunch.
And if you're not a fan of nut roast, this could be just the solution to your veggie roast woes!
The made dry ingredient in this meat-free loaf is, of course, Special K rice-based cereal, crushed and combined with chopped walnuts for crunch and bouillon powder and sage and onion stuffing mix for flavour and seasoning.
You'll then add cottage cheese, melted butter and eggs to bind everything together and ensure it bakes into a perfectly sliceable loaf. Yum!
This Special K roast is great served warm with roast veg and gravy, but it's also delicious cold the next day, as my mum and I discovered when we kept going back for more over lunch.
I can't thank Mary aka Keynko enough for sending the original recipe over. Here's what she had to say way back in 2012:
This recipe was given to me by the mum of my dearest friend @wobblymouse - they were brought up vegetarian from childhood, whilst I converted as a teenager. When my mum was stuck as to what to feed me for a Sunday roast, this was the life saver for all concerned! I still make it regularly and serve it as a Sunday veggie roast - reminds of happy teenage Sunday dinners with BFF as carefree teenagers - now we're boring middle aged women and don't get to have dinner together nearly often enough - so it's from both of us!!
I should add, I've made a few small tweaks over the years. The main change is replacing onion soup mix (hard to source in UK supermarkets) with bouillon and stuffing mix, which gives a lovely Sunday dinner flavour.
Here's the full recipe for Special K roast.
Ingredients
- 240 g (3¼ cup) Special K or any rice-based cereal flakes
- 60 g (½ cup) walnuts finely chopped
- 1 tbsp bouillon powder
- 85 g (⅔ cup) sage and onion stuffing mix
- 6 medium free-range eggs beaten
- 350 g (1½ cup) cottage cheese
- 80 g (5 tbsp) salted butter melted
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan / 320F).
Grease and line a 1lb loaf tin (you can use a cake tin if you prefer).
First, you'll need to crush the Special K to a rough crumb.
You can do this with your hands in a bowl, or you can place the cereal in a ziplock bag and bash with a rolling pin. Don't overdo it - if you end up with a powder, your final roast will be dense.
Add the crushed Special K to a bowl with the walnuts, boullion powder and stuffing mix.
Stir through.
Add cottage cheese and the melted butter.
Mix together.
Add the eggs.
Stir into the mix thoroughly, ensuring the egg is well distributed.
Transfer the mix to your prepared tin.
Cover the top of the loaf tin with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the foil and bake for a further 45 minutes.
Turn out on to a serving board and slice to serve.
Easy, right? This Special K roast must be tried!
Print this Special K roast recipe
Special K Roast Recipe
Ingredients
- 240 g (3¼ cup) Special K or any rice-based cereal flakes
- 60 g (½ cup) walnuts finely chopped
- 1 tbsp bouillon powder
- 85 g (⅔ cup) sage and onion stuffing mix
- 6 medium free-range eggs beaten
- 350 g (1½ cup) cottage cheese
- 80 g (5 tbsp) salted butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan / 320F).
- Grease and line a 1lb loaf tin (you can use a cake tin if you prefer).
- First, you'll need to crush the Special K to a rough crumb. You can do this with your hands in a bowl, or you can place the cereal in a ziplock bag and bash with a rolling pin. Don't overdo it - if you end up with a powder, your final roast will be dense.
- Add the crushed Special K to a bowl with the walnuts, boullion powder and stuffing mix. Stir through.
- Add cottage cheese and the melted butter and mix together.
- Finally, add the eggs and stir into the mix thoroughly, ensuring the egg is well distributed.
- Transfer the mix to your prepared tin.
- Cover the top of the loaf tin with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove the foil and bake for a further 45 minutes.
- Turn out on to a serving board and slice to serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Amanda @gidders1 says
This is very intriguing Emily! Such an unusual mix of ingredients, its definitely one to give a go of.
The Brick Castle says
That looks absolutely delicious, I can't believe it has so few ingredients and is so simple. We have 4 veggies in my house so it's definitely something I'll be trying at some point. Thank you :)
HELEN says
ooh I love this! I think I could fool my family into thinking this is meat !
Mary says
It looks so tasty! Haven't made it for a while - guess what we're having for Sunday dinner!!!!
Thanks for choosing me and so glad you liked it!
Midlife Singlemum says
Looks great. You are so right about the quest for texture.