Juicy meatloaf with hidden vegetables

Name: Juicy meatloaf with hidden vegetables
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 1 lb (450g) beef mince (ground beef) (12% fat content); 1 medium onion (grated); 1 cup zucchini/courgettes (grated); ½ cup carrots (grated); 1 large egg; ½ cup milk; 2 slices bread (crusts removed if preferred); 2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce; 2 teaspoon paprika; 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste); ½ teaspoon black pepper (or to taste); 1 tablespoon brown sugar; 3 tablespoons tomato sauce (ketchup); 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar; ¼ cup water; 2 cups (480ml) tomato passata; 6 small shallots; 1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs; 2 cloves garlic; 2 teaspoon sugar; salt (to taste)

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This juicy meatloaf has got to be the most flavourful meatloaf I’ve ever eaten. It’s covered with a saucy glaze and packed with hidden vegetables that will fool even the fussiest eater. What’s more, it freezes like a dream, so you can save any leftovers (what leftovers?) for those days when you don’t feel like cooking.

Slices of meatloaf on a bed of pasta, smothered with delicious marinara sauce. — This meatloaf can be served on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes, but my favourite way to serve is over pasta, covered with my favourite easy homemade marinara sauce.

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Table Of Contents

The juiciest meatloaf
How to make it
Marinara sauce
Tips and FAQ for the juiciest meatloaf
Pin for later
Other easy supper recipes
The recipe
Juicy meatloaf with hidden vegetables

The juiciest meatloaf

This juicy meatloaf is a quick and easy meal that you can throw together in no time and then just leave it in the oven to cook away. It’s perfect for when you want a healthy, comforting meal for the family, but you don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen.

I’ve packed this meatloaf with lots of grated vegetables so for those of you with picky eaters who turn up their noses at the slightest sniff of a vegetable I think you are going to love it. The vegetables are grated before being added to the meatloaf mixture, and they cook away to almost nothing but leave the meatloaf beautifully moist and juicy.

The meatloaf is also covered with a beautifully sticky glaze before going into the oven. The glaze serves 2 functions – it helps prevent the meatloaf from forming a hard crust on top, and it also provides lots of extra taste.

This is the second meatloaf recipe I’ve posted. The first one was for my meatloaf wrapped in bacon which is just as juicy but takes a bit more effort to make. The recipe I’m posting today takes only 10 minutes to prepare, and thenyou just pop i in the oven and let it bake away.

If you’d like to cover this meatloaf with my marinara sauce, I’ve included the recipe for that too, further down the post.

Closeup of a baked meatloaf in a baking tin.

How to make it

**You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this juicy meatloaf on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**

Ingredients

First of all, prepare your ingredients.

Beef mince – I like to use beef mince with no more than a 12% fat content, any higher than that and your meatloaf will end up swimming in a greasy pool in the baking dish. If you prefer you can use half beef mince and half pork mince instead of just beef.
For the vegetables I’ve used grated zucchini/courgettes, carrots and onion. I normally just grate them on the large holes of a box grater/cheese grater. If you’d like to make your vegetables even smaller, you could whizz them round in a food processor fitted with the metal ‘S’-blade.
To add bulk and help the meatloaf hold together you will need a couple of slices of bread soaked in milk. If you are using crusty bread you might like to remove the crusts first, but if you are just using sliced sandwich bread it’s fine to leave the crusts on. For a more intense flavour you could soak the bread in chicken or beef stock instead.
An egg, which helps with the binding.
Worcestershire sauce – for flavour.
And then the spices and seasonings – paprika, salt and pepper.
Finally, for the glaze, you will need red wine vinegar, tomato sauce (ketchup), brown sugar and 1/4 cup water. Half of the glaze is spread onto the meatloaf before it goes in the oven, and the remainder is spread on the meatloaf after it has been turned out of the baking tin.

What to do

Once all the ingredients are prepared, assembling the meatloaf is simplicity in itself.

Steps for mixing and forming the meatloaf. — There are only 4 easy steps.

You will need a 4″ x 8″ non-stick loaf tin (10cm x 20cm).
Place the meat, grated vegetables and spices into a mixing bowl. Give the bread a squeeze to remove any excess milk and add that. Then get your hands in and mix well until thoroughly combined.
Press the mixture into the loaf tin. I don’t bother greasing mine, but if you are worried about the meatloaf sticking to the pan you could rub it with a little oil first. Press down firmly on the mixture to ensure that it will all stick together as it bakes.
Place the ingredients for the glaze into a small saucepan and stir over a gentle heat until the sugar has dissolved. Spread half of the glaze over the top of the meatloaf and then cover the baking pan with a sheet of tinfoil.
Bake in a preheated oven (180C/360F) for 30 minutes, then remove the tinfoil and bake for a further 20 minutes. If you have a meat thermometer, the internal temperature should be 71C/160F.

Once cooked, turn out onto a serving dish and cover with the remainder of the glaze.

Two images showing the juicy texture of the meatloaf. — Just see how moist and juicy it is.

Cut into slices and serve either on a bed of mashed potatoes or on a pile of spaghetti or tagliatelle.

If you’d like to cover your meatloaf with my marinara sauce, here’s how to make it.

Marinara sauce

You’ll need these ingredients.

Tomato passata – this is sold in cartons or bottles in the UK. Passata is simply whole tomatos that have been processed and then sieved to remove the pips and any bits of skin. The result is a smooth, thick tomato sauce – not to be confused with tomato ketchup.
Shallots – these have much milder, sweeter taste than normal red, white or yellow onions. If you can’t get shallots, red onion would be the next best option.
Mixed herbs – sometimes called Italian herbs. This is just a mixture of rosemary,oregano, basil and thyme.
Garlic – you can use fresh garlic which has been finely minced, or ready crushed garlic from a jar.
Sugar (not pictured) – I always add a small amount of sugar when I cook with tomatoes as I think the sweetness of the sugar helps bring out the flavour of the tomato.
Salt – optional – but I like to add a small amount for extra flavour.

Peel and finely chop the shallots, and peel and crush the garlic. You should aim to get the shallots to be about the size of a grain of cooked rice. You can do this in a food processor, or use a sharp knife. If using a food processor, be careful not to over-process.
Fry the onions and garlic with the herbs, in a little sunflower oil. Use a low heat and let them sweat slowly. Take care not to let them brown – the onions will turn translucent when they are ready.
Now add the passata, a teaspoon of sugar, and salt to taste. Turn the heat down as low as possible, cover the saucepan with a lid and leave to simmer for about half an hour until the sauce has thickened.
Serve spooned over the meatloaf.

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Tips and FAQ for the juiciest meatloaf

Why do you cover with tinfoil for the first 30 minutes?

Covering with tinfoil for the first half of the cooking period helps keep the moisture in, which results in a juicier meatloaf. Once the meatloaf is partially cooked, we remove the tinfoil to give the meatloaf time to firm up.

Does this meatloaf freeze well?

Yes, it freezes perfectly. You can either freeze leftovers or double up on the recipe, make two meatloaves and freeze one for another day (great energy saver).
I pack mine into plastic (or Tupperware) containers and freeze for up to 4 months.
To use, defrost in the refrigerator and reheat in the microwave on full power for 2-minute blasts. Depending on how much meatloaf you are heating this may take up to 3 blasts.
Alternatively, you could place the defrosted meatloaf on a baking tray, cover with tinfoil to prevent it drying out, and heat in the oven (180C/360F) for about 10 minutes until piping hot.

You can also freeze the unbaked meatloaf. In this case, I would assemble the meatloaf in a disposable aluminium baking dish and freeze it in that. Then, when ready to use, allow to defrost in the refrigerator and bake in the oven, following the recipe instructions.

If you make the marinara sauce, you can freeze leftovers in a plastic bag for up to 6 months. To use, tip the frozen sauce into a saucepan and heat gently until it defrosts, then increase the heat to allow the sauce to boil.

Should I fry the vegetables before adding them to the meatloaf mixture?

This is a matter of preference – the grated raw vegetables cook perfectly will in the time it takes the meatloaf to cook, and I like the bits of vegetables to be visible.
If you are really trying to hide the vegetables in the meatloaf, you can certainly saute them in a little sunflower oil and allow them to cool before adding to the meatloaf. Softening the vegetables in oil will certainly help to make them less visible in the finished dish.

What other vegetables do you suggest using?

You can use any vegetable really, so long as you grate or chop them really finely.
Why not try adding grated potato, very finely diced celery or mushrooms, or even chopped cauliflower or broccoli.
Just keep to the proportions given in this recipe – for each 4oz (110g) of beef you should add 1/2 cup of vegetables.
Don’t exceed this ratio or you may find your meatloaf will fall apart.

Additional resources

Don’t forget to check out my handy Cookery Conversion Calculator if you want to convert any of your recipe measurements from grams to cups, ounces, tablespoons or millilitres and vice versa. You can also use the calculator for converting oven temperatures between Fahrenheit, Celsius and Gas marks.

If you live at a high altitude you may find you need to adjust your baking recipes to compensate for this. You can read all about it in this post on baking at high altitudes.

Pin for later

If you would like to make this juicy meatloaf, why not pin the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so that you can find it easily later. Just click on the image below.

Other easy supper recipes

Why not take a look at some of my other easy supper recipes using beef mince:

The recipe

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