During times of economic difficulty, cooking meatloaf was a way to stretch a family’s food budget by combining inexpensive mince meat, with other ingredients such as as leftover vegetables and bread. Meatloaf is typically eaten with some kind of sauce or relish, e.g. Tomato & Onion Sauce or Tomato Salsa (recipes below). The sauce can be poured over the loaf to form a crust during baking or served with it. Tomato-based sauces may be replaced with simple brown gravy or onion gravy, but the meatloaf is prepared in a similar manner. For a vegetarian option, try the recipe for Lentil & Nut “Meat Loaf”.
5 ml sunflower oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 medium green pepper, seeded and finely diced
5 ml crushed garlic
500 g minced beef, chicken, lamb, pork or turkey
250 ml fresh white breadcrumbs
1 large egg
4 to 6 sun dried tomatoes in oil, chopped (optional) or
peppadews, (mild or hot) chopped (optional)
100 ml milk
2 ml dried rosemary or 10 ml fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 ml dried origanum or 10 ml fresh origanum, finely chopped
2 ml salt
2 ml chicken or beef stock powder, e.g. Ina Paarman
freshly ground black pepper
- Preheat the oven to 190 ℃ and line a baking tray lined with a Wizbake baking sheet. Alternatively, grease a medium loaf tin (1 liter capacity) with non-stick cooking spray.
- Heat the oil in a saucepan and gently sauté the onion, garlic and green pepper, stirring frequently until softened. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- Place the meat and all the remaining ingredients into a mixing bowl. Add the cooled onion mixture and mix together lightly until evenly combined.
- Transfer the mixture to the baking tray and form it into a neat loaf shape. Or, transfer the mixture to a loaf tin and pack down firmly.
- Bake about 45 minutes until golden brown.
- Transfer to a serving dish and serve hot with Barbeque sauce or Home-made Tomato Salsa and warm side dishes such as Potato Mash, brown or white rice, couscous, etc.
6 to 8 servings.
Recipe by Carolié de Koster from Art Of Cooking page 252.
