Week 2 - Meat Substitute

When I saw the Week 2 theme, meat substitute, I had every intention of using something like Impossible Burger or Beyond meatballs or Trader Joe's beefless beef to substitute for meat. But then I put a vegan meatloaf I really wanted to try (recipe from Nora Cooks) on the meal plan for the first week of the new year, and remembered that meat substitute didn't just mean some commercially-engineered meat substitute but also things like chickpeas that could stand in for meat. I was really excited to try out this recipe, since unlike some others it didn't need a food processor or a blender, and also because I love meatloaf.

The ingredients for our version of the meatloaf were:

- 1 small onion ($0.19)

- 3 medium carrots ($0.46)

- 2 large celery stalks ($0.30)

- large spoonful of minced garlic ($0.05)

- olive oil spray to grease pan ($0.10)

- olive oil for sautéing vegetables ($0.10)

- 2 cans of chickpeas ($1.93)

- about 1/2 tsp liquid smoke ($0.05)

- 1 cup panko bread crumbs ($0.75)

- 2 tbsp ground flaxseeds ($0.16)

- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast ($0.15)

- 2 tbsp soy sauce ($0.15)

- 2 tbsp + 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce ($0.60)

- 4 tbsp + 1/3 cup ketchup ($0.42)

The total approximate cost for the meatloaf was $5.41. I had to run the calculations twice, because I was in disbelief at the low cost. We paired it with a can of green beans, which meant dinner for three was under $7. It was only the second week of the challenge, but I think this might end up being our most affordable meal of the whole challenge year, based on how much our meals usually cost.

The steps for making the meatloaf were:

1. Prep - chop onion, carrots, and celery into small pieces. Drain and rinse chickpeas. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and spray loaf pan (used 9 inch pan) with olive oil spray.

2. Heat olive oil in skillet. Add the onion, celery, and carrots along with garlic. Cook until onions are translucent. Remove from heat and cool.

3. In a large mixing bowl, add the chickpeas. Use a potato masher to break them up (but stop before they get pasty or mushy). [This step took far longer than I thought it would, mostly because I used one can of Goya chickpeas, which were soft and mashable, and one can of Trader Joe's chickpeas, which were hard and similar in texture to nuts. The latter refused to be crushed and only sometimes split in half, no matter how hard we mashed. They only got harder with baking too. I won't be using those again, partially because I would rather have a smoother texture for the meatloaf, and partially so I don't spend the entire dinner worried about the chickpeas being nut-like choking hazards.]

4. Add the vegetables to the chickpeas, along with the liquid smoke, panko, flaxseeds, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, 2 tbsp of the Worcestershire sauce, and 4 tbsp of the ketchup. Mix well, and then scoop into a loaf pan and smooth out the top.

5. Cover loaf pan with foil, and bake for 30 minutes.

6. Mix together the rest of the Worcestershire and the ketchup for the glaze.

7. Remove loaf pan from oven after the 30 minutes, remove the foil, and spread the glaze evenly on top. Return to oven, and bake for 15 minutes uncovered.

8. Remove from oven, and let it sit for about 15 minutes [it was late - we did 5-10 minutes]. Slice and serve.

The meatloaf was delicious. A little heavy on the Worcestershire flavor, but I personally like that, so I thought that was great. The texture wasn't the same as you would get from ground meat, but I don't know if that would have been different without the hard nut-like pieces of chickpeas that we had thanks to the TJ's chickpeas. I would absolutely make this again, but I will try to be wiser with my choice of chickpeas.