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Spiced Pork & Vegetable Meatloaf

Spiced Pork & Vegetable Meatloaf.

Meatloaf in tin

On answering the ‘What’s for Dinner?’ question when my kids returned home starving I was surprised with their reaction when I said Meatloaf. I had expecting ‘yeuch’ or ‘that sounds disgusting’ but instead it was ‘oh meatloaf, is that the American thing?’ and I said yes, because it does seem to be a very American thing.

I don’t remember my mother ever making it and in fact I don’t think I’ve ever had it before myself. I wanted to use pork mince and I had been thinking meatballs but they take such a long time to roll into balls and are tricky to cook through to the middle without overdoing the outside and have to be tended to whereas meatloaf is a much easier option. I based this meatloaf dish on a nutroast that I had made some time back {link} and decided to really healthy it up with lots of vegetables.

Meatloaf slice

It is tasty, it is easy, it’s not a ‘wow’ dish but being simple and extremely economical it’s a perfect midweek dinner.

I’ve called it meatloaf but it’s mostly vegetables so as well as being speedy and cheap it’s a good healthy option. Ticking lots of boxes with this one.

A major plus is that with the aid of a food-processor it takes about 5 minutes to prepare and then cooks away happily unobserved in the oven for 1 hour so that you can do other things.

Accompaniments were wholegrain rice and cannellini beans cooked with garlic, onion, herbes de provence and a tin of plum tomatoes.

Note: I highly recommend the use of a food-processor with a chopping blade and a grater blade for speedy preparation of ingredients.

Spiced Pork & Vegetable Meatloaf:

Serves 6 generously.

You will need:
2 slices bread (wholegrain preferable)
2 garlic cloves
1 medium onion
4 mushrooms
1 red pepper
500g pork mince
3 medium carrots
50g pumpkin seeds
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp herbes de provence
1 egg
A little oil
Method:
Preheat the fan oven to 170C
Use a food processor to blitz the bread into breadcrumbs and place them in a large bowl.
Next chop the onion and garlic together in the food processor and add to the breadcrumbs.
Bltz the mushrooms and add to the bowl { – don’t mulch, keep bitey!}
Bltiz the red pepper and toss in on top of the other ingredients followed by the pork mince.
Change the blade on the food processor to a grating blade and then peel and grate the carrots and add to the pork mince mixture followed by the pumpkin seeds, chilli flakes, herbes de provence and 1 beaten egg.
Use your hands to get stuck in and mix the ingredients so that all are well distributed.
Use a piece of paper-towel to grease the sides and base of a loaf-tin with a little oil and then fill it with the meatloaf mixture.
Cook in the preheated oven for 1 hour.
Great with wholegrain rice and cannellini beans as described above.
Enjoy!
‘Til next time, Sheila

Author:

Irish Author - Dubut romantic fiction novel 'Good Enough' published in 2021. 'Gimme Dinner' a collection of 50 great dinner recipes published in 2022. 'Enjoy' published by Mercier Press in 2016 .'Gimme the Recipe' published in 2012. Work in admin of our Food Safety Consultancy business - Industrial Management Systems with my husband Denis.

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