I’m in the mood for a meatloaf tonight. Except, I don’t want the traditional meatloaf mom used to make. I’m more interested in something off the beaten path.
Thanks for all suggestions.
I make my meat, then roll it out on waxed paper. Top with spinach and cheese (or whatever) then roll it to make a stuffed meatloaf.
Meatloaf recopies? I think I have a recopy somewhere that’s been xeroxed several times until it’s almost unreadable… 
Let’s see, just off the top of my head, maybe an Italian-style meatloaf. Mix ground beef with breadcrumbs, well diced onion and minced garlic, Italian herbs, grated parmesan. Serve with some type of pasta like penne and a nice red sauce. Like spaghetti and meatballs, just in meatloaf form.
Or, a meatlof umami bomb-- sub some of the breadcrumbs for finely diced mushrooms. Add Worcestershire sauce. Maybe a little soy sauce. Heck, even some Thai fish sauce if you’re feeling adventurous. Serve with potatoes and top with a brown mushroom gravy.
My gf recently wanted lasagna, but was low-carbing. She made a great sauce, shredded some cheese, added ricotta, etc, then in place of lasagna noodles used turkey meatballs. Sounds weird, but it was fantastic.
That sounds really good. I’m thinking of going back to a low-carb diet to get rid of some winter / pandemic weight-- will keep that in mind!
I’ve used popcorn crumbs as a binder.
Huh. I thought I had linked the recipe over there. This is similar to the one I used.
Many recipes use oats or bread crumbs as filler. Minute rice (or any store brand instant rice) also works well and adds no flavor of its own. It does absorb the meat flavor and other flavorings you’d normally put in your loaf. Just remember to add some liquid (a bit less in volume than the amount of rice used) or the loaf will be dry.
A while back I tinkered with a “Korean bbq” meat loaf. It was an experiment, so I don’t have a recipe, but it went more or less like this:
For the meat mixture, it was pretty standard, but I added fresh ground ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and thin sliced rounds of the white end of a couple scallions. Oh, and instead of bread crumbs, I fine-ground some dry rice and then toasted it golden, and mixed it in.
Then I made a kalbi sauce and cooked it down to a glaze for the outside of the loaf. Brush on a couple layers during baking.
Serve with rice and an assertive green vegetable (I steamed broccolini).
Came out great, if a tad salty. If I make it again I’ll moderate the soy sauce a fair bit, and maybe add some gochujang or sriracha.
Our roomies at the other house make meatloaf using StoveTop Stuffing of the most common brand as the bulking and seasoning agent, it is actually pretty tasty.
mrAru and I will take the meatball recipe from Lion’s Head Meatball soup [pork and beef, 2;1] and turn that into the meatloaf, it is pretty tasty [we like the squeezy bottles of ginger and garlic for that purpose, saves lots of mincing] though we just finely chop regular white onion instead of sourcing spring onions. We brush the top with soy sauce a couple times during baking. I suppose one could use teriyaki glaze for that.
I like to add a tablespoon of Korean fermented red pepper paste to meatloaf. Your recipe looks good. How do you grind the rice?
I’ve made something like this before, but with turnip rather than parsnip tusks:
This turkey meatloaf is jam-packed with all the umami ingredients. It’s delish. (I use a small can of tomato sauce instead of ketchup because I don’t care to own any ketchup.)
I’m making it for Mother’s Day.
How about a buffalo chicken meatloaf? I don’t have the recipe I use to hand at the moment, but here’s some similar ones;
I have a pizza meatloaf recipe I developed as a teenager who learned to cook for himself after getting home from school.
Basically you take a pound (or so) of beef, a cup of Italian breadcrumbs, a small can of tomato paste (not sauce), a tablespoon of olive oil, a quarter cup of parmesan cheese. I also add oregano, dry basil, garlic powder. And an egg. Mix it all really thoroughly, grease a loaf pan with olive oil, then pack it in. Cover the whole top with shredded mozzarella.
Cook as you normally would (I believe it’s an hour at 375, can’t remember off the top of my head).
It comes out cheesy and tasting pizza-ish. I often fiddle with the recipe, sometimes mixing mozzarella or another kind of shredded cheese inside, or putting a sauce on top. But it’s always a variation of the basic recipe.
Another filler you can experiment with is crushed potato chips.
I’ve definitely heard of people using zucchini or eggplant in place of lasagna noodles.
yeah my cousin’s wife used “zoodles” said cousin wasn’t overly impressed but wanted the kids to eat more vegs so he goes along with it occasionally
Many many years ago (like, around 1975) I had a recipe for Sweet And Sour Meatloaf, which I’ve long since lost. If anyone here has anything similar, I’d like to see it.
It came from the back of a dry cereal box – I think it was Bran Flakes (not All-Bran), and used that for “filler”.
Some of the ingredients that I can remember were: Frozen orange juice (the “just add water” kind, without the water); some dry mustard powder; and minced bell pepper, along with the aforesaid cereal. Seems to me there must have been some other ingredients also that I’m not remembering.
I recall it being very good, at least to my liking.
Anybody know of any meatloaf recipe like this?
I am not a big meatloaf fan. But my Dads was well liked, and called for at potlucks.
It had no strict measurements:
2/3 ground beef, 1/3 pork sausage.
Cracker crumbs, about equal to the sausage.
Chopped onion. maybe a small can of diced mushrooms or maybe chopped celery.
Worcestershire sauce. seasoning to taste.
Mix by hand.
Apparently the pork sausage and the Worcestershire sauce set it apart.
Not groundbreaking, sorry, but a little different.
Well, if it’s a good recipe it gets copied and recopied and passed around…
I fixed the typo in the thread title.