Turkey Meatloaf with Apple and Sage
It’s amazing that I’m still feeding my family. Since our book How to Feed a Family launched on September 3rd, it’s been super difficult to keep up with the pace of a press tour and the grind of family meals. In fact, a bunch of my friends had a chuckle recently on Facebook when I posted a photo taken just before our book launch party of Scarlett, Esme and Julian all dressed up eating a mushroom pizza we ordered into the bar. Someone actually asked, “so this is how to feed a family?!” To tell you the truth, yes. We’ve never said we’ve got it all figured out. We get up each morning, try our best and, if it all goes to hell in a handbag (make mine a Miu Miu satchel), we pack it in and know we always have tomorrow to do better. It’s just the way it goes some days and you can’t beat yourself up over it. So, yes, we ordered pizza with a white, fluffy crust and it was gooooooood.
Photo by Maya Visnyei
If last night’s dinner was a burger in the car while you drove to some Godforsaken practice for the 100th time this week, have no fear. You always have tomorrow and tomorrow’s dinner can be these fantastically delicious mini meatloaves.
If you can believe it (I’m the one who can’t actually), I made these in the midst of a very hectic week. After being up every morning around 5am to make the rounds of morning television stations, I still mustered the energy to put these together one afternoon. So, in other words, they take very minimal effort and brain power but the outcome is super delicious, especially if you love to mix the sweetness of apples with the slightly pepper hit of sage. We ate them for dinner and about a million lunches since they slice up nicely for sandwiches. If you have one of these nifty mini loaf pans, then it’s easy to freeze single servings. This way you can always have them around for those nights, well, when, you know, it all goes straight to the Miu Miu with that fancy metal buckle closure.
Ingredients
- Makes: 8 mini loaves or 1 regular loaf
- Prep time: 20 minutes
- Total time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- 1 1/2 Tbsp (22 ml) butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 Gala apples, cored, peeled and sliced into small chunks
- 2/3 cup (160 ml) unseasoned breadcrumbs
- 2/3 cup (160 ml) milk
- 2 lbs. ground turkey meat
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) apple butter, plus an extra Tbsp (15 ml) for tops of loaves
- 2 Tbsp (30 ml) chopped fresh sage
- 1 tsp (5 ml) fine sea salt
- 1/4 tsp (1 ml) ground pepper
Method
Preheat your oven to 400.
Grease your mini loaf pan or a baking pan.
In a medium size skillet over moderate heat, add the butter and cook your garlic and shallots, stirring, until onion is softened, about 3 minutes.
Stir together apple chunks, breadcrumbs and milk in a large bowl and allow to soak for about 5 minutes.
Add your turkey meat and mix to combine.
Stir in your egg as well as the garlic and shallots–Be sure to scrape as much of the butter from the pan into the bowl too.
Mix in your apple butter, sage and salt and pepper until all your ingredients are mixed evenly throughout the meat.
Spoon the meat mixture into your loaf tins, using all your meat.
If you're not using a loaf pan, place your meat onto your pan and shape it into an oval.
Bake in the oven on the middle rack for about 50 minutes or until the internal temperature of a loaf reaches 160 degrees.
In the last minute of your cooking time, brush the tops with some apple butter.
Remove the loaves from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes then serve.
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Hey, thanks for stopping by!
We're Ceri and Laura, a couple of magazine-editors-turned-food-bloggers. Also, we're mothers obsessed with delicious, healthy, family food. We're constantly thinking of ways to make your time (and our own!) in the kitchen easier and more productive, but still nostalgic for the days when dinner was cereal eaten over the kitchen sink.
3 Comments
Hoochus
November 09, 16:52This recipe sounds good. Can it be made using one large size meatloaf pan? If so, what adjustments if any, would you suggest?
Thank-you.
Hoochus
November 09, 16:55OOPs! Re-read the recipe and have my answer. Thanks.
Laura
November 23, 09:17No problem! Hope you enjoyed it.