A Spin on a Classic - Asian Meatloaf

Growing up I didn't eat a lot of ground beef.  Actually, it was extremely rare.  I didn't like hamburgers, casseroles, sloppy Joes, etc. I think the only ground beef I ate was in tacos/burritos.  But eventually in college I tried a Culver's bacon butter burger deluxe, which was incredibly delicious and completely changed my mind.  Now I eat ground beef and really like hamburgers.  And then recently I decided that meatballs and meatloaf were interesting.  I've even got a recipe bookmarked for a lentil meatloaf!

So my latest inspiration was an Asian meatloaf.  It just sounded like such a good idea, so I made it happen using this Cooking Light Asian Style Meatloaves recipe. 

 

Ingredients

Ingredients lineup

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped bell peppers picked out of a bag of frozen peppers & onions stirfry 
• leftover green onion tops from baked potato soup
• 1/2 can of diced water chestnuts
• 4-5 raw mushrooms, chopped
• remnants of a bag of chopped frozen spinach (so little left, might as well throw it in!)
• 1 T low-sodium soy sauce
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (from a jar)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 T panko bread crumbs 
• 2 T flax seed meal (I threw this in as an experiment)
• 2 T hoisin sauce (all I had left in the jar)

I dumped the meat in a large bowl (use a big, wide one!) and then started prepping the veggies.  Luckily there wasn't a whole lot of manual cutting or chopping.  I threw the individual veggies into the little chopper cup (like a mini food processor) of my immersion blender one at a time and gave them a few spins around to mince things up finely and then added each of them to the bowl. Then I decided the veggies were going to cause the meatloaf to be too wet if I used them raw, so I scooped them out of the bowl and tossed them all in a non-stick skillet and sauteed them for a few minutes until they were a little drier. 

Shaped raw loaf

Then I mixed everything together.  It took a lot of mixing to ensure everything was incorporated.  At one point I thought I was done stirring, only to uncover a pocket of raw egg, so I had to stir more.  That's why I recommend you use a big, wide bowl, it really helps to use your hands to truly get everything mixed.  If you're too squeamish to put your hands into the raw meat, a big, wide bowl will at least help you dig your spoon in and turn all the ingredients.

Cooked meatloaf

I covered my baking sheet with heavy-duty foil and shaped the loaf on top.  It's not really the same size and shape as a loaf of bread might be, mine was a little wider and flatter.  I figured that was better to ensure it was able to be cooked all the way through.  It cooked at 375 degrees for 45 minutes and when I tested it with the probe thermometer, it was done.   I let it rest for a bit while I reheated the frozen rice leftover from making kimbop.  

Verdict

This was super delicious!  I totally loved it and Husband Jeff thought it was really good too.  Sonny D liked it a lot too, I think he might have eaten a slice and a half.  I was surprised that the texture was really light since I figured it could have gotten tough from all that mixing. 

We ate half for dinner!  That's a full pound of meat!

I was so happy that I went with a full batch, I was originally thinking of only making half a batch with only the pound of ground turkey since I didn't want to have to buy any more meat to go with it.  I was super-glad to have leftovers waiting for lunch the next day.