Ted Allen's Meatloaf...VEGANIZED

Having reached out to my friends Lisa of DallasEats and Amanda of Whiskey Tango Vegan for some culinary advice, I was able to veganize this meatloaf recipe from Ted Allen's book The Food You Want to Eat: 100 Smart, Simple Recipes. The original recipe calls for milk, eggs, ground chuck, and ground pork...obviously not vegan. So I made some simple substitutions and additions to veganize this dish.

1 cup firmly packed pieces of good-quality white bread

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 medium onion (sautéed)

1/2 medium yukon gold potato (chopped, steamed)

2 tubes Gimme Lean Ground Beef Style

1 tube Gimme Lean Sausage Style

2 flax eggs

2 garlic cloves (minced)

2 teaspoons vegan Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Put bread in a small bowl, pour almond milk over it, and set aside while you make the rest of the loaf. Stir the bread every now and then so it gets completely soggy.

In a large bowl, combine sautéed onion, steamed potato chunks, meat replacers, flax eggs, garlic, Worcestershire, mustard, salt, and pepper. Mix with hands until it's all combined. Now add the bread and almond milk and gently work that into the mixture until just combined.

The original recipe suggests forming the mixture into a 9 x 5-inch loaf down the center of a 9 x 13-inch dish and baking for 50 to 60 minutes. I decided to bake mine into 4 smaller loaves so I could easily share my creation with friends. Here's how that went down:

I evenly divided the mixture into quarters and filled a Pampered Chef Mini Loaf Pan (that I stole from my mother), then baked the dish for 60 minutes. After removing the loaves from the pan, one of the loaves completely fell apart (karma maybe?). The other loaves seemed a bit undercooked, so I turned them upside down and put them back in the oven on a flat pan for an additional 20 minutes. 

Ted suggests topping the meatloaf with a mushroom-walnut sauce and pairing it with a Petit Syrah, California Cabernet Sauvignon, or a Valpolicella. Since I decided to eat mine Southern-style (slicing the loaf, bathing it in ketchup, and grilling each side), I paired mine with a big glass of chocolate soy milk...sloppy, good mess!

Thanks for the great recipe, Ted!