If you’re interested in eating less red meat but love the taste and texture of a good meatloaf, this recipe is for you. I have made turkey meatloaf with vegetables and honestly thought I was going to ruin my grass-fed local burger by adding all of the vegetables into the mix. I was wrong!

The taste and texture of this meatloaf was pretty darn close to a good old-fashioned (and often really unhealthy) beef-based meatloaf*. If you’re not sure about it, try a half batch and hopefully you’ll be convinced.

Ingredients:
1 pound grass-fed lean ground beef**
1 egg
1 TBSP olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
4-6 cloves of garlic (depending on their size and how much you like garlic)
1 medium carrot
1 small zucchini
1 green pepper
1 1/2 cups “breadcrumbs” - I used 1/2 cup of gluten-free breadcrumbs, 1/2 cups of hemp-seed hearts, and 1/2 cup of flax-seed meal
1/3 cup of ketchup
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Shred the carrot and zucchini

3. Chop onion, garlic and green pepper

4. Heat olive oil in a medium-large pan and add all vegetables. Saute approximately 5 minutes so that vegetables are soft.

5. In a large mixing bowl, combine raw burger, cooked vegetables, “breadcrumbs”, egg, salt and pepper. Mix well.

6. Transfer the mixture into a 9 X 9 pan, unless you have an extra large meatloaf pan. I found the mixture did not fit into a standard meatloaf pan.

7. Cover with foil and cook for 20 minutes. Uncover and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

8. Remove from oven and spread the ketchup “frosting” onto the top, which should be crispy brown at this point. If it’s not, cook for a bit longer before adding the ketchup.

9. Cook for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and you’re ready to eat.

   Recipe adapted from Momma’s Healthy Meatloaf on Allrecipes.com
   
   The first time I made this I included a side of asparagus. It was nice to have a different vegetable with the dish but also found that I didn’t really need it.

   *This statement has been verified by one of my clients who enjoys fully traditional meatloaf taste and texture.

   ** While we did use beef in this recipe, we have often used ground turkey. The recipe works with both and any combination of vegetables have worked with the turkey.