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One Packet, Two Meals, Part 1 - Moroccan Meatloaf

Food shopping, particularly fresh meat and veg can be expensive. I try to organise my meals and shopping at the beginning of the week, allowing me to use one ingredient for a number of dishes. This is easily done by being a little creative with your ingredients, stocking up on spices, herbs and food that keeps (such as bulgar, couscous, rice, pearl barley, quinoa, lentils… the list is endless)

This one is the first of an ongoing series of recipes I want to share, which uses one ingredient for two meals and saves you lots of money ;)

The other week I made this lovely Morrocan Meatloaf for Sunday lunch. It’s a great twist on a traditional more boring recipe, stuffed with different flavours and super fragrant spices.

I served the loaf with oven roast veg, seeded pitta bread and a refreshing greek yoghurt & cucumber dip. This dish is ideal to take to a summer picnic and works beautifully in a sandwich or with a side salad or sweet potato wedges.

Happy Cooking!

SERVES 4
PREPARATION 20 mins
COOK 45 mins
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INGREDIENTS

For the Meat Loaf:

  • 125g bulgar wheat (cooked to instructions. Make sure your bulgar isn’t soggy, otherwise your meatloaf won’t stick)
  • zest of one orange (grated)
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 medium size carrots, coarsely grated
  • 250g lean lamb mince (I bought a 500g packet and only used half, putting the other half aside for lunch the next day)
  • 2tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2tbsp pine nuts (these are expensive, so feel free to use chopped almonds or any other nut you fancy)
  • 50g sultanas
  • 2 eggs, beaten

For the roast veg:

  • 5 red and yellow peppers, de-seeded and quartered
  • 1 courgette, sliced length-ways
  • olive oil
  • sea salt and black pepper to season

For the yoghurt dip:

  • 500g greek yogurt
  • 1/2 cucumber finely diced
  • extra virgin olive oil (don’t worry if you don’t have extra virgin olive oil, the regular one will do)
  • 1/2tsp ground cumin
  • salt and pepper to season

Toasted pitta bread to serve

PREPARATION METHOD:

  1. Preheat the oven to 190˚C. Grease and line the base of a 12x22cm loaf tin.
  2. Place the cooked bulgar into a large bowl, stir in the orange zest, onion, lamb, cinnamon, pine nuts and sultanas into the bulgar wheat. Add the beaten eggs, season with salt and pepper and mix well to combine.
  3. Transfer the mixture to the loaf tin and press down very firmly with the back of a large spoon. Bake for 45 minutes until cooked through and browned.
  4. Place your veg onto a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. After your meat loaf has been in the oven for 15 minutes, place your veg on the shelf underneath and cook for the remaining 30 minutes.
  5. For the yoghurt dip, mix together all your ingredients in a bowl, stir thoroughly and drizzle with some extra olive oil. Chill until needed.
  6. Turn out the meat loaf, leave to cool for approximately 10 minutes, slice and serve with the roast veg, toasted pitta bread and the yoghurt dip.

This dish goes really well with fresh mint tea or a light beer. Enjoy!

Meat Loaf recipe from waitrose.com and adapted by Toni.