Many gluten free options for fillers: potatoes, potato flakes, potato chips, tortilla chips, gluten-free oats, cornflakes, rice, etc. They all work fine. Meatloaf is unbelievably forgiving and you can use virtually anything that will hold a little bit of moisture as a filler. Hell, mushrooms, beans, zucchini, whatever. Add a little bit of gelatin (about 1/2 a teaspoon for a 2 pound loaf mixed with about 1/2 cup of stock or broth or whatever liquid you feel like) before mixing in if you want an even moister meatloaf.
All the recipes here sound good so I’ll only add my tips:
Yes, shape it in a loaf and bake it on a baking pan and not in a loaf pan and it won’t soak in fat. Plus there’s more exposed surface area to get nice and brown.
Double your meatloaf recipe, bake two loaves and freeze the cooked second loaf. Cooked meatloaf freezes really well. I thaw it on the counter with an oven mitt on it so it doesn’t thaw too quickly, then slice it and reheat the slices briefly in the microwave. Works great!
Onion soup mix, rehydrated in the milk you will use for the meatloaf, is a great seasoning. Reduce the amount of salt you add to the meatloaf, though, as the soup base is salty.
My favorite crumb to use in meatloaf is saltine cracker crumbs. I like the texture that results: not spongy and sloppy, but not too firm, either.
My aunt made meat loaf with the onion soup mix, but as years went by and they had to cut down on their salt intake, she poured the dry soup in a strainer, shook it, and used the onion bits and only half the soup granules in her meatloaf.
Mine is about 3/4 ground beef and 1/4 ground lamb. The glaze is ketchup with cumin and honey. Recipe later.
I use gluten free cracker crumbs.
I second the lamb. I use beef/lamb/pork.
I’ve never found anyone who doesn’t like this meatloaf.
1.25-1.5 pounds of very lean beef and pork
4 strips of bacon, chopped fine
1/2 cup of cheddar cheese
1 egg
1 cup of V-8 (the spicy kind is nice for this)
1/4 cup of dried onion
Worcestershire sauce
saltine crackers
Beat the egg, add the V8, onion, and Worcestershire sauce and allow the onion to soften. Then go to town with the loaf. To cook, ball up some foil and rest the loaf on top to allow space for fat to drain.
Measurements are approximate.
I make a glaze with catsup, mustard, vinegar, cumin, and apple butter, but sometimes I don’t make a glaze at all.
I just wing it with meatloaf. When I say “bunch” I mean about a tablespoon or less.
About a pound of hamburger
One egg
Bunch of salt
Bunch of pepper
Bunch of paprika
Bunch of cumin
Some other random spices, oregano, parsley, etc.
Some Thai chili sauce
Some ketchup
Some Worcestershire
Breadcrumbs until it has enough consistency to make patties with but turn it into a loaf in a pan obviously.
Ketchup the top of the loaf once it’s in the pan and throw a bay leaf on top too.
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour and there you go.
Before I had to go gluten-free, I always used a recipe off of the Quaker Oats box.
As other have said, as long as you have the basic parts (meat and a binder) almost anything goes with meat loaf.
I’ve had success just using eggs, gluten-free cracker crumbs and a jar of salsa. I call it “Meat Loaf Mexicali” but that is more of a family joke than an accurate description.
Here you go. It’s actually a variation on Alton Brown’s recipe.
Heat the oven to 325F.
6 ounces of dry bread crumbs (croutons work well)
½ tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried thyme
½ onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, mashed and minced
½ red bell pepper, finely chopped
(or place the above four ingredients in a food processor and pulse until minced)
18 ounces ground chuck
8 ounces ground lamb
1-1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 egg
Note: for the meat, you can substitute half ground chuck and half ground sirloin and delete the lamb, if desired. I think the lamb gives this dish a robust flavor.
For the glaze, combine:
½ cup ketchup
1 tsp ground cumin
dash Worcestershire sauce
dash hot pepper sauce
1 TBSP honey
Combine all of the loaf ingredients gently. Don’t squeeze the meat. Either free-form the loaf onto a baking sheet, or form into a loaf pan and turn it out onto a baking sheet. Insert a meat thermometer at the middle of the loaf, and about halfway through. Place the pan in the oven. After ten minutes, brush the glaze all over the meatloaf and allow to roast until an internal temperature of 155F has been reached.
I got a meatloaf pan as a wedding shower gift just a few weeks ago - it’s a loaf pan with an insert that drains off the grease. Anybody else try one of these?
I will share anything for the Dope,
but I won’t share that, no,
I won’t share that.
1.5-2 lb ground beef
1/2 to 1 package Pork Sausage (I like less, hubby likes more- spicier) (I use this http://jimmydean.com/products/premium-pork-regular-sausage.aspx)
1 sleeve saltine crackers, crushed
2 eggs
1 onion, chopped and sauteed until softened
mix it all up, shape it into 2-3 loaf shapes (unless you want one honkin big one), and bake at 350 for until the internal temp reaches 160. Thats about an hour as I recall. I don’t bake in a meatloaf pan, I bake it on a sheet with a rack. A ketchup shortage in my kitchen years ago led to the spreading of Hoisin Sauce on top, which has now become the gold standard.
What is Hoisin Sauce? | HowStuffWorks
I really prefer the free-form method, which gives you a lot of crusty surface area when done. It’s like a giant meatball, really.
Oh, and congrats on the upcoming (?) nuptials.
It changes but basically:
1.5 to 2 lb. ground beef
2 eggs
2 slices of bread shredded up
Milk
Worchestire Sauce
Fyra Kroddar (t’s a Swedish Spice - smells like sage - you could substitute)
Salt and Pepper
Sauteed Onion, Garlic and Green Bell Pepper
Lipton’s Beefy Onion Soup Mix (1 package)
’
Mix all that stuff up then add the beef. Don’t over mix the beef - it will get tough. Mush it on a flat pan and make a loaf shape. Cover with bacon.
Bake at 350. Maybe an hour. I forget. Sometimes I put shredded cheddar cheese in the middle if my husband has been good. And once I put them in muffin tins and make individual ones but that didn’t work real well.
We have a special meatloaf pan - it’s like a bread loaf pan but it features a separate metal piece with holes at the bottom which doesn’t extend all the way down the pan. So the meatloaf sits on this piece and all the fat gets deposited at the bottom. Works really well.
The wife usually cooks it, but I know she makes two versions usually. One with black beans and shredded zucchinis mixed with the meat, and the other with a blend of beef, pork, and veal and she puts hard boiled eggs once the mix is properly seasoned. It looks cool when you take yourself a slice and you get a profile section of one of the eggs. Tasty too 
I make turkey meatloaf because it’s healthier and, honestly, I think it tastes just as good as its read meat counter parts (it doesn’t taste the same, but it is good). Actually, last time I did a mix of turkey and bison, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, I do the normal: some bread crumbs, an egg, whatever spices are handy.
A few unique things I do:
[ul]
[li]I really finally dice whatever veggies I need or want to use and include them in the mix. In summer, I usually have squash around, so I’ll super finely dice/ mince it and add it to my mix. Mushrooms and bell peppers often meet the same treatment. The only veggies I consistantly add in are onions and garlic, anything else is just what’s around. Anyway, if it’s finally chopped, you can’t even taste it. [/li][li]Muffin Tin. Seriously. I divide my loaf mix up and put it in individual muffin tin slots. What’s great is that 1: you’ve got portion control (generally, the way I do it, two “muffins” are one serving) and 2: each one gets nice and crispy on the edges while staying nice on the inside. Oh! And 3: they cook faster.[/li][li]Tabasco Ketchup on top! Seriously, this is a must do every time. I stole the idea from this blog, though I add more Tabasco than it suggests. [/li][/ul]
I’ve got my “meatloaf muffins” worked out where it’s basically 170 calories for a serving, which includes in it (the way I make it) lots of veggies. What’s nice about the individual serving size too is that I can just grab them and go when I’m in a hurry.
Goddamned edit time frame. Red meat. RED. And FINELY.
I’m going to drink now.
Agreed. Loaf pans are completely unnecessary and, in my opinion, produce a worse product than hand forming a loaf, placing it on a wire rack in a roasting dish for the reasons you stated. And, I agree that it’s basically just a giant meatball.
What most people tend to do with the loaf-pan method is to pack the meat mixture into the pan. As with hamburgers or meatballs, this can result in a dense and dry end-product. My mother always made hers this way. Between boiling it in the grease from cheap ground meat and packing it in with a sledge hammer, it’s surprising that it was at all edible. I haven’t used a wire rack, but that’s a good idea. I just scrape it out of the mixing bowl directly onto a heavy duty baking sheet, then lightly form it.