Meatloaf. The Good Kind.

Happy fall, friendos!  I personally couldn't be happier that the cool weather is finally settling in here in Atlanta, and to celebrate I made one of my new favorite cold weather dinners:  meatloaf.  I didn't grow up in a family that made a lot of meatloaf, and I'm happy about that, because so much of it out there really isn't great.  But this meatloaf was perfect, on its own and in heavenly sandwich form.

Meatloaf Recipe
This recipe is of course gluten and dairy free, but feel free to make substitutions.  It's also wonderful with strictly 1 1/2 lb. of ground chuck used--play around with it.

• 1/2 cup GF breadcrumbs
• 1/3 cup rice milk
• 1/2 lb. ground chuck
• 1/2 lb. ground lamb
• 1/2 lb. ground veal
• 1 large carrot, grated
• 1/2 yellow onion, grated
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup parsley, minced
• salt and pepper
• Sambal Ketchup*

Alright!  First, make those breadcrumbs.  I always save the ends of my Udi's loaves to make them.  Throw them in a food processor, and you're ready. 

Then place them in a large mixing bowl and add your milk of choice.  Dry breadcrumbs make for dry meatloaf, so let them soak up all of the milk before you add the other ingredients. 

Then grate the onion and carrot and mince the parsley.  Add the veggies to the bowl, along with the egg, meats, salt, and pepper.  Mix this gently with the tips of your fingers.  Don't smash it all together.  This will result in a much better texture.

All that's left to do is place it all in a small loaf pan, cover it with the sambal ketchup, and bake it at 325 for 40 to 45 minutes.  After it comes out of the oven, let it rest for 10 or 15 minutes and then enjoy!

I should add, I served mine with an AWESOME onion jam.  Cut several pieces of bacon (I used three) into lardons and crisp in a pan.  Remove the bacon, leaving the bacon grease in the pan.  Dice a large yellow onion and add it to the pan.  Caramelize the onions and then add some brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, salt, bourbon, and a little corn starch, as well as the crispy bacon.  This stuff is amazing.

*Sambal Ketchup 
This sauce is perfect because it's sweet and spicy.  You have a couple of options here.  You can just add some sambal to ketchup until it's as spicy as you'd like it to be, or if you're like me and don't have any ketchup, you can do what I did below.

• 3 Tbsp. sambal
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 2 tsp. dark brown sugar
• hot water

Combine the sambal, tomato paste, and brown sugar in a bowl.  Then just add a little hot water to thin it out a bit and dissolve the sugar.