"Meat" Loaf

What do you do when your favorite human asks for meatloaf; when she challenges your research chef certification to come up with a vegan alternative of one of her favorite comfort foods?

You do it, obviously.

Mise... the left is for the meatloaf, the right for the gravy. Yes, I forgot the carrots which you will see later.

Sautee up the veggies so we can add them to the meat mixture when the time comes.

Follow that up with 4 pounds of potatoes for mashers, and a couple of squash sliced up and coated in olive oil and seasoning. I had pictures, but there were going to be more pictures than words if I posted them all. Also, if you don't know how to make mashed potatoes by now... well you're already on the internet, go look it up.

I started with 2 pounds of Beyond Meat. Added the sauteed mushrooms, onions, shallots, and carrots. Also 2 eggs worth of Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer mixed up with water. I really did try to keep this as close to a classic meatloaf as I could.

One thing I didn't do though was add ketchup. I didn't want to do the sweet/BBQ meatloaf that I was used to growing up. If I'm making a meatloaf, it's a grown up one.

Instead I went with a nice mushroom gravy.

I sauteed the mushrooms in vegan butter (I use Miyoko's), then added the shallots and onions. If you've read my French Onion Soup recipe, you know that this takes a while. Then I tossed some gluten free flour in to make a roux, and once it soaked up the coconut oil from the butter, I stirred in mushroom stock until I had a nice gravy.

I grilled the squash on my cast iron grill pan, made some mashers, and baked off the meatloaf. I didn't take any final pictures, I was too busy enjoy some great company instead.

But the Beyond Meat + Egg Replacer + veggies does in fact equal a prefectly acceptable meatloaf.