Here is the transcript of the episode:
Welcome to The Sensitive Kitchen where home cooks are inspired to “Cook to Enable Those You Love to Flourish.” I’m Cindy Sullivan, registered dietitian, passionate nutrition, educator, and accomplished home cook. Whether you’re changing how you cook for food sensitivities, allergies, intolerances, or just trying to eat healthier on a budget you’re in the right place!
Most episodes I will share favorite recipes as well as modification, tips and nutrition benefits. Occasionally I’ll have a guest or special episode like modifying holiday favorites. My favorite foods, they’re raspberries and homemade chocolate chip cookies. My latest cooking project was long fermented sourdough bread.
Hello. I’m glad you’ve joined me today! The recipe today is our favorite gluten-free meatloaf.
Now,as we get started, I have a confession to make. I am not a meatloaf fan. I never order it when we go out. And if I have a choice, I choose something else. Unless it is my grandma’s meatloaf recipe, which this is. It is the only one I like. And not only do I like it, I adore it.
When my son heard I was sharing this recipe, his eyes lit up and he said, “Does that mean you’re making meatloaf?”
My grandma never heard of gluten-free. She made delicious homemade food for her family. We ate it for years before anyone had heard of gluten-free. So it is just fine for everyone.
What’s the secret to this recipe? Rice Krispies.
Yup. You heard me right. Rice Krispies. They hold the moisture and keep the meatloaf moist and lighter.
Let’s talk a little bit about meatloaf and why make meatloaf. First of all, it’s delicious and moist. Meatloaf is basically ground meat, liquid binder, and seasonings. It keeps it all together and it maintains the moisture in the meat.
Why make meat loaf?
Because it’s easy to chew if a family member has braces or dental work.
It’s truly comfort food for those days when you just need something familiar.
This is a simple recipe. That’s easy to make.
It’s also easy to customize.
This meatloaf recipe also makes a large amount. So it’s easy to prepare for freezer meals. It tastes just as delicious reheated as fresh. Well, almost as delicious because you miss the wonderful aroma that tells you meatloaf is for dinner. Hooray!
Let’s talk a little bit about how to store this meatloaf because it freezes wonderfully. I usually cut each meatloaf in half wrap the half in plastic wrap, put it in a freezer bag, label it and throw it in my freezer.
You can also slice the cooked meatloaf and lay the slices on a baking sheet and freeze the slices individually. After it’s frozen wrap, each piece in a piece of plastic wrap, for example, place it in a freezer bag for storage.
The meatloaf can also be made in three loaves instead of two slightly reducing the cooking time. And then these smaller meatloaves can be frozen individually for meals.
The key to this recipe is the meatloaf is going to cook at a high temperature for 10 minutes to give it a nice sear. This will both add flavor is it will brown the outside of the meatloaf and serve to lock in some of the moisture.
Some of the moisture will leak out on the pan. It is okay, but line your pan or you’ll have to scrub.
But let’s talk about substitutions. This recipe is very easy to modify.
First of all, eggs, you can use an egg replacement like flax eggs, or you can do what my mom did and just leave the eggs out.
The recipe calls for milk. Use, whatever unflavored milk your family tolerates.
Onions. We substitute shallots because we don’t use many onions in this family due to sensitivities. You could also use chives or scallions if they work for you. Garlic should work great; I have not tried garlic, let me know if you try it.
Ketchup – to kick it up a notch, I often use fermented ketchup if I have some in the fridge. It just takes the flavor and adds complexity to it. It’s wonderful. If you can’t tolerate the additives in ketchup, use canned pureed tomatoes. And I know some of you like to put some extra ketchup or pureed tomatoes over the top of your meatloaf. If that’s your style, go for It.
The recipe calls for ground beef, but any ground meat will work, but the flavor will be different.
For Equipment. There’s not much you need other than a really large bowl, (And I find a really large bowl easier because I don’t like to clean up my counter and I’m not the neatest cook always. So I like a really large bowl) a sharp knife and a cutting board to cut up the onion, a liquid measuring cup, (I use a two cup), a whisk or fork, a large spoon, a small bowl for cracking the eggs, a rimmed baking sheet and heavy duty foil for lining your pan.
There’s about 15 minutes of prep time to this meatloaf recipe and it cooks for about an hour.
Now let’s talk about the ingredients. It calls for
three pounds of ground sirloin
one large onion, chopped
three quarters a cup of ketchup
three quarters of a cup of milk
two eggs
and four cups of rice Krispies.
Now, if you like spice in your food or someone in your family does, there are a lot of ways to add spice or zip or additional flavorings.
Think of this as a master recipe that you can change to fit your family’s tastes. So if you think this might be too bland, add a little bit of Worchestershire sauce, like maybe a teaspoon. Now be careful here. If you have food allergies, there’s fish in Worchestershire sauce and a lot of other additives. So we don’t usually use it in my household,but if you can use it, it will add a lot of extra flavor.
But instead of Worchestershire sauce, you might try horseradish or Dijon or grainy mustard, maybe an herb or two would suit your family’s tastes something like time or dill, or maybe spices like pepper or lemon pepper, or maybe something like hot sauce, barbecue, or even curry.
If you’ve got adventurous eaters in your family, there are so many ways that you can tweak and modify and boost the flavor in this recipe. We actually like it and eat it plain, but there are lots of different ways to add zip.
Now these instructions are really basic, but basically , you’re going to start by lining a rim baking pan with heavy duty foil, fold up the sides about an inch or so on all four sides and fold the corners so they stay up. This step is optional, but it will save you a lot of time in the cleanup. This meatloaf always leaks. And then afterwards, some of that, that leaks out will caramelize and will coat your pan or your foil. If it’s your foil, you can just throw it away. But if it’s your pan, you’ll have to scrub it.
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Remember you’re going to give this a nice sear. So 450 degrees is where it’s going to start. You’re going to chop your onions medium or fine if you prefer.
Measure your ketchup and milk in a two cup measure, crack two eggs in a bowl, mix them well, and then add them to the milk and the ketchup and whisk all three of them together.
Break up the meat in a larger bowl and add the onions and gently mix. Now it’s important when you deal with ground meat, not to pack it hard together, but you want to use a light hand and just go gently with it. It’ll retain more moisture. It won’t be so dense and hard. So you’re going to gently mix in the onions.
And then you’re going to add the liquid ingredients and mix gently. You can use a spoon or you can use your hands, but if you have any jewelry on your hands, you may want to take it off because the meat and the mixture tends to get stuck in my rings, if I don’t take them off.
When everything is thoroughly combined, add the Rice Krispies, be sure to listen for the snap, crackle, pop, because you’ll hear it! Mix gently. And this will take a couple minutes to mix all the Rice Krispies in.
Divide the mixture into two parts and gently form them into sort of an oblong shape and place them in the prepared pan.
Place the pan in a preheated oven for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, you reduce the heat to 325 degrees and continue to bake for about 45 minutes. Test the meatloaf with an oven thermometer. The center should be 160 degrees. And if it’s not put it back in the oven and tested again in a few minutes. Let it rest for a few minutes before slicing. And call everyone to dinner.
While the meatloaf is in the oven, you have lots of time to put some veggies together, to round out your meal.
Let’s talk about some of the nutrition benefits of this meatloaf. Many of you are aware that beef is a very nutrient dense food. So in one 16th of this recipe, let me tell you how you get to 16 pretty easily. If you cut each loaf in half and cut each half into four pieces.
One 16th of this recipe gives you about 200 calories, 19 grams of protein and four milligrams of iron. Four milligrams of iron is about 25% of the iron you need for your whole day if you’re premenopausal women and about 40% of the iron you need for your entire day, if you’re a post-menopausal woman or a man.
Four milligrams of zinc, that’s 40% of the zinc you need in a day and 15 micrograms of selenium, about 30% of the selenium you need in a day. Now, selenium is important. We’re hearing a lot about inflammation these days and antioxidants. Well selenium belongs in those enzymes that help combat oxidation like glutathione peroxidase for example. Selenium is core and important to those. So it’s important to get enough selenium in your diet.
This meatloaf is also a good source of B vitamins. It’s got about 25% of the riboflavin you need, about 35% of the niacin you need, 30% of the vitamin B6, and a hundred percent of the vitamin B12. This is all for 200 calories, about 200 milligrams of sodium, which is quite low, four grams of saturated fat and nine grams of total fat.
This Is a powerhouse in terms of B vitamins, iron, zinc, selenium, protein. Realize that when I’ve done this, I’ve made this meatloaf with a ground sirloin to get these numbers. That’s about 10% fat. So if you use a higher fat ground beef, you’ll have more fat and saturated fat.
This is a delicious, easy meatloaf recipe using rice Krispies to keep it moist.
I hope you enjoy! Review it, let me know. Go to the website, foodsensitivitykitchen.com. This is episode four. Check out the show notes. It’ll give you the recipe. It’ll give you lots of pictures of how to make it.
Leave a review if you would. Hit subscribe. I’d love to hear how this recipe turned out for your family, how you modified it, how you changed it for your family’s tastes.
And if you haven’t taken the cooking quiz yet, go take your cooking framework quiz to find out – Are you an adventurous eater, or do you, does your family prefer, tried and true recipes? You’ll find the cooking quiz, the website, foodsensitivitykitchen.com. Thanks so much for listening.
Have a great day. Bye-bye.
