Gabrielle’s kind of a meatloaf pro, so we used her super easy meatloaf recipe for this week’s Customizable Cooking!
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 1 egg
- 1tomato
- 1 large onion, cut into pieces
- 1 carrot, grated
- 2/3 cup bread crumbs
- Black pepper
- Thyme
- Red chili powder
- Ketchup for glaze
Method:
Blend tomato in blender or food processor then mix in a bowl with all the other ingredients.
Add as many spices as you want.
Put into a loaf pan and top with the ketchup.
Bake at 350 for an hour or up to an hour and a half.
Voila!
GABRIELLE:
Expertise: Simple! I got a recipe from a gluten free/health recipe book and modified it just a bit for the first time I made it (I added the breadcrumbs and spices) and it came out great, so I stuck to that modified recipe ever since!
Ease: Very easy — just a matter of buying and mixing up the ingredients
Customizing: I realized as I was making it that I usually put in a lot fewer breadcrumbs, but I made it as written above just to see how it went and it turned out great! The breadcrumbs really bind everything together, so when you’re cutting it up to eat later you get really nice slices that don’t fall apart.
Repeatability: I’ve been making this recipe for a few years now.
SOPHIE:
Expertise: Not only have I never cooked Meatloaf before, I think I’ve only ever come across it once before so this was pretty new to me.
Ease: Super easy, you basically just throw everything in a bowl together.
Customizing: Instead of breadcrumbs I used cornflake crumbs but I don’t think this made any difference. I added in a bit of tomato paste when I was blitzing my tomatoes. The recipe suggests you go nuts with the herbs and spices and use whatever you want so I did, I used a little bit of paprika, ground chilli, mixed herbs, thyme, parsley, basil and turmeric (it’s quite possible I used more than these but I don’t remember!).
Repeatability: While the end product was definitely nice, the texture of it kind of freaked me out. It’s probably not something I will make again although I would be interested to try it in a restaurant when it’s made by somebody who knows what they’re doing.
HADAS:
Expertise: Noob. I’ve never cooked beef before.
Ease: Pretty easy as my mother did it all for me and I watched. No, but seriously it was just assemble ingredients, fry some onions, and cook it up.
Customizing: So we switched things up. We used 1 pound ground beef, cut 1 large onion and fried it a bit, 2-3 cloves garlic, a handful of parsley diced up, salt (sparingly because Kosher meat is super salty as part of the Kosher-ing process), pepper, 1 tablespoon matza meal, and 1 tablespoon of tomato sauce. Here’s the real difference though- my mother remembers how her mother used to make meatloaf and we included two hardboiled eggs inside the mix.
Repeatability: Ease-wise I could make this often, taste wise I’ll update when I try it later this week.
Method Notes: Mix all the ingredients together with unflavored bread crumbs or matza meal, put 1 tablespoon at a time to see if it’s still very liquidy, set it aside to see if it absorbed well- if it is too dry sprinkle a bit of water.
Melissa’s Nutritional Tidbit: Ahhh meatloaf, a true American classic, equivalent to the popular mac & cheese and hamburger. Meatloaf is such a simple yet versatile meal. You can add whatever spices and flavors appeal to your audience, including vegetables, like chopped peppers or spinach. While meatloaf is quite delicious, it can be high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Try to purchase 90% lean ground beef to lower cholesterol and fat intake.You can also use ground turkey if that suits your tastes, as that’s lower in fat and cholesterol.
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