Summer Turkey Meatloaf
Warning: This could be the cutest meatloaf you’ve ever seen.
Warm and humid days are finally here to stay in the old NYC but they haven’t stopped me from craving heavy foods. Sometimes my body just wants comfort food and when that happens, I usually try my best to keep the comfort food level to “as healthy as possible”. The other day it was meatloaf so I thought why not make one with ground turkey and stuff it with summer vegetables and beautiful sweet and tangy peaches? A summer turkey meatloaf was just what I needed!
Lately I have noticed that many home chefs (myself included) prefer cooking dishes that are simple yet still very tasty because we all have so much going on in our lives. And we all agree that eating home made food is almost always better than ordering take out. It has to do with caring about what is in our food and what we put inside our bodies. With that in mind, I wanted to keep this summer turkey meatloaf recipe as healthy as possible and as easy to make.
The steps are easy to follow and the flavors go very nicely together. Prepping everything shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes and the baking portion can be left mostly unattended. The summer turkey meatloaf is covered with foil so this helps keep the meat moist and prevents the top from burning. It truly is a very easy recipe to make!
We both really enjoyed this summer turkey meatloaf, especially topped with a little Bulldog Tonkatsu sauce (Japanese style barbecue sauce – you can get similar results with regular barbecue sauce although it will be more sweet than tangy). You can also top it with melted cheese or keep it simple with a refreshing squeeze of lemon juice.
Serve this summer turkey meatloaf with one or two of these side dishes: bean stew with tomatoes and thyme, scalloped potatoes, sauteed green beans with fennel and garlic seasoning or a Brussels sprouts salad with kale and asparagus.
- 1.5 lb ground turkey
- ¼ cup grated pecorino romano cheese (or parmesan)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ½ carrot, sliced into thin julienned sticks
- ½ zucchini, sliced into thin julienned sticks
- ¼ red bell pepper, cored, seeded and sliced into thin julienned sticks
- 1 heaped cup baby spinach
- 2 peaches (or apricot or mango), peeled and pitted and sliced into strips
- extra virgin olive oil for brushing
- 1 sprig rosemary
- Preheat oven to 400Fº
- In a large bowl add ground turkey, pecorino romano cheese, eggs, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce and salt and mix well using your fingers.
- Lay a 6 by 10 inch piece of parchment paper on a flat surface and brush a little olive oil on it (or you can dust some flour).
- Put the ground turkey mix on the paper and pat the mixture into a 1 inch thick rectangle.
- Lay the spinach, carrot, zucchini, bell pepper and HALF of the peaches in the center of the rectangular turkey patty and fold each side to meet in the center. Close it up by pinching both side together until they bind into one. *Alternatively, you can put the vegetables and peaches on one side of the patty, fold and roll. Lightly brush the top with olive oil and top with rosemary.
- Close both ends and transfer into a meatloaf pan (9.5 x 6.5 inch or bigger).
- Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes.
- Serve topped with the leftover peaches and your favorite barbecue sauce (I use Bulldog tonkatsu sauce)
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