I have made many meatloaves in my
life. Some good. Some just O.K. And
some just plain bad.
After many years of trying, I have finally gotten together a recipe that not only tasted good...but I've actually made it several times following my own recipe! It is (not surprisingly) no where near as heavy or dense as traditional meatloaf recipes. It is very flavorful, not at all greasy, and, yes, one can actually taste the veggies, though they don't over power the ground meats. After all, it is called meat-loaf.
Try your own seasonings and veggies. Try ground veal or even ground turkey (if you must). I use JD breakfast sausage and grind my own beef from chuck (about 80% lean). But make sure you either saute or roast the veggies (then cool) before putting it all together. Also, be sure to form a tight loaf, ie, use your hand to mash and squeeze together all the ingredients. If you don't make it tight, it will fall apart when cooking. Keep the veggie dice small (1/2 inch or so, not only for conformity and even cooking, but so as not to arouse suspicion from friends or family members to they think you are forcing some gawd-awful vegetarian recipe on them). And please, for gosh sakes, use ground meat and not some sort of tofu-meat-like crap from a health food store! Save that for something other than one of the most coveted comfort foods ever to be served at any diner from here to Kalamazoo. Putting this many veggies in meatloaf is skirting that fine line anyway.
One final disclaimer regarding flavor. It all comes down to proper seasoning, and that is always according to taste.
Eat comfortable!
