Festive meatloaf
Cranberry sauce, sage & chestnuts
1 hr 50 mins (20 MINUTES PREP, 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES COOK)
Not Too Tricky
serves 10
About the recipe
Super delicious and embracing a whole host of festive flavours, this meatloaf makes for an impressive centrepiece but at a fraction of the price when compared to big opulent birds and cuts of meat.
Ingredients
3 onions
olive oil
25g unsalted butter
1 bunch of sage (20g)
750g higher-welfare minced beef
350g higher-welfare pork sausagemeat
1 free-range egg
150g fresh breadcrumbs
200g cranberry sauce
1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans
100g Cheddar cheese
1 x 180g packet of cooked whole chestnuts
2 clementines
500g carrots
500g parsnips
red wine vinegar
optional: port or sherry
10 rashers of higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon
Top Tip
GO VEGGIE
Simply ditch the bacon, and swap out the meat for 500g of veggie mince and 2 x 400g tins of drained brown lentils. Add 1 tablespoon of Marmite to the mixture along with everything else. You may need to add 1 extra egg too, depending on how dry your veggie mince is – you’re aiming for a sticky, firm dough.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F/gas 4. Peel and finely chop the onions.
- Put a large non-stick frying pan on a low heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the butter. Once the butter starts to sizzle, tear in the sage leaves, followed a minute later by the onion. Season with a pinch of sea salt.
- Cook for 15 minutes, until soft but not coloured, stirring regularly, then tip into a large bowl and leave to cool.
- Once cool, add the mince, sausagemeat, egg and breadcrumbs, along with 50g of cranberry sauce. Drain and add the beans, grate in the Cheddar, crumble in half of the chestnuts, and finely grate in the clementine zest. Scrunch together really well, shape and pat into a large meatloaf in a large, oiled roasting tray, and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of oil.
- Wash the carrots and parsnips, halving or quartering any larger ones, then dress in 1 tablespoon each of oil and red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt and black pepper and scatter around the meatloaf. Halve and add the clementines.
- Roast for 50 minutes, then take the tray out of the oven and baste the meatloaf and veg with the tray juices, and use tongs to squeeze over the jammy clementine juice. Loosen the remaining cranberry sauce with 2 tablespoons of boiling water or, even better, a festive tipple of your choice like port or sherry, then spoon over the meatloaf.
- Weave the bacon in and around the veg and meatloaf, crumble in the remaining chestnuts, then return to the oven for a final 25 minutes.
- Slice the meatloaf and serve with the roasted veg and bacon, some roasties or mashed potato, seasonal greens and lashings of gravy.
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