Turkey meatloaf
A comfort food for many people, meatloaf is great for a winter dinner. It may be an excuse to use ketchup and some have been known to eat leftovers for breakfast. A meatloaf sandwich can be a treat.
This version, modified from a recipe found on Epicurious, uses ground turkey rather than beef. Roasted red pepper sauce can be a good substitute for ketchup. Happy 2013.
Servings: 8 (at least)
Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 medium carrot, small dice
- 3/4 pound cremini mushrooms, stems removed, finely chopped in a food processor
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- 5 tablespoons ketchup (or roasted red pepper sauce)
- 1 cup whole grain breadcrumbs
- 1/3 cup skim milk
- 1 whole egg, lightly beaten (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)
- 1 egg white, lightly beaten (or an additional 3 tablespoons egg substitute)
- 1 1/4 pound ground turkey mix of white and dark meat
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Cook onion and garlic in oil in a 12-inch skillet over moderate heat for a couple of minutes then add the carrot.
- Cook until the carrot is starting to soften then add the mushrooms and 1/2 of the salt and pepper. The mushrooms will release liquid and cook until it has evaporated.
- Stir in Worcestershire sauce, parsley, and 3 tablespoons ketchup, then transfer vegetables to a large mixing bowl.
- Stir together bread crumbs and milk in a small bowl and let stand 5 minutes.
- Stir in egg and egg white, then add to vegetables.
- Add turkey and remaining salt and pepper to the vegetable mixture and mix well with your hands. Or, you can use a kitchen tool.
- This is one of my favorites — don't have a name for it but it looks sort of like a mini rug beater. (The mixture will be very moist.)
- Here's where I went wrong a little. You are supposed to shape the mixture into an oval on a baking sheet about 9 inches long.
- Allegedly the meatloaf was supposed to take 50 to 55 minutes to reach an internal temperature of 170 degrees as measured by a meat thermometer. That may have been the case if the meatloaf was thick enough but my thinner version reached the target temp in only 25 minutes. Then I went through the trauma of not knowing if I had inserted the thermometer too close to the baking sheet giving me a false reading. 25 minutes felt too short so I empirically added another 10 minutes or so and resorted to the tried and proven fork method ( see evidence here).
- The meatloaf was great though a 1/2 cup of parsley doesn't really count as a serving of vegetables. So I cooked up some kale, garlic, and crushed red chilies.