Cajun Meatloaf

lazyme's Note:

I got this recipe from Ladies Home Journal several years ago. My family loves it and requests it often. Because it takes a little more time for the prep work, I usually double the recipe and freeze the other loaf.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 35 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 green onions , finely chopped
• 1 cup onion , finely chopped
• ½ cup green bell pepper , finely chopped
• 1⁄3; cup celery , finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic , minced
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper
• 1⁄8; teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ cup ketchup
• ½ cup half-and-half or ½ cup evaporated milk
• 1 lb extra lean ground beef
• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 large eggs , lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 ½ teaspoons Tabasco sauce

Directions:

1. Melt butter in medium skillet over medium heat. Add green onions, onions, green pepper, celery and garlic; cook until softened. Stir in salt, cumin, pepper, ground red pepper, nutmeg and bay leaves and cook 1 minute. Stir in ketchup and half-and-half and simmer 2 minutes. Cool. Remove bay leaves.
2. Heat oven to 350ºF. Combine ground beef, ground pork, eggs, worcestershire, and tabasco in large bowl. Stir vegetable mixture into meat mixture until well blended.
3. Spoon mixture into 9x5 loaf pan. Bake 70 minutes until meat thermometer inserted in center registers 160ºF. Cool in pan on wire rack 5 minutes. Drain and unmold onto serving platter.

Reviews

[NELady]

I used a medium onion and whole bell pepper (didn't measure them out) - also, I added about a cup of panko breadcrumbs to the mixture as it was loose and I was concerned about it setting up. Also, I used 100% ground beef - ground pork doesn't fly with my husband and he won't eat it. Other than that, I followed the directions exactly. After baking it and letting it set, it kind of crumbled and came apart when I tried to slice it. It was tasty (actually, it tastes quite a bit like taco meat - in fact, since the whole meatloaf crumbled apart, I'm using the left-overs tomorrow at lunch for tacos!) - I enjoyed the combination of flavors and really liked to addition of the sauteed vegetables to the meat. Maybe if I'd added another egg this would have been more "loafy" at the end? Or maybe adding the breadcrumbs screwed up the formula? Presentation aside, this TASTED good, which is more important than anything at my table. I added all of the spicy ingredients, and was relieved that this wasn't over-the-top spicy - just a nice hint of heat. I served this with Baked Potatoes With Bacon from 3 Guys Cuban Recipes and left-over BBQ baked beans. Made for the Groovy GastroGnomes, ZWT5.

[wicked cook 46]

I am not giving a star rating since I think I did something wrong. The taste was AMAZING but it was very soft and wet. So I think I grabbed a wrong measure. Has a nice subtle kick. Made for ZWT 5 for the Cajun regon for team Zaar Chow Hounds Served with Alligator Hush Puppies#373582 and recipe373266#373266

[kiwidutch]

This is the very first meatloaf that I have ever made that smelt amazing even while I was still mixing together the raw ingredients ! First an apology Lazyme becuase I totally forgot to put in the ketchup... Duh moment... and it was still lovely! I will make it again WITH the ketchup as I'm sure that it will improve it even more. We liked the spicyness of the peppers and tabasco, I confess that I wimped out on putting in 1.5 teaspoons of tabasco as that seemed a lot to me and we are not so used to firey food, so did half the amount, and was pleasantly surprised at the resulting heat, that I could have put in the entire amount after all. Next time I will... and there WILL be a next time becuase this went down rather well. Please see my rating system: a wonderful 4 stars for a great recipe that incorporates veggies into meatloaf with realitive ease, and tastes good. The meat was very soft and DH has bagged first dibs on leftovers of this with pasta tomorrow so that's a good sign if ever there was one :) Thanks!