Meatloaf sandwich a savory meal
| • | Trick-free treats |
By Elaine Magee
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Q. I was at Kathleen's Art Café in the Dallas area and saw the meatloaf sandwich on the menu. Couldn't order it because I can't eat things that are too rich, but immediately thought that you could save this dish! Extra-thick meatloaf is planked on top of thick slices of bread along with tomato, blue cheese crumbles and a healthy smear of mayonnaise.
A. Fall is the perfect time to bite into a meatloaf sandwich, don't you think? It's savory, of course, but the meatloaf is also nice and hot, so the blue cheese melts a little. A warm meat sandwich is a welcome lunch or dinner. I started with an "old-fashioned meatloaf" recipe from the April 1994 issue of Gourmet and then changed it a bunch.
I kept the finely chopped onion and garlic and celery and carrots but replaced 2 tablespoons of butter with 1 tablespoon of olive oil (used to saute the veggies). I cut the salt in half and used 2 pounds of super-lean ground beef (usually a nice and lean ground sirloin) instead of a mixture of ground chuck (pretty high in fat) and ground pork (definitely high in fat). To keep the cholesterol and saturated fat in check, I replaced one of the eggs with a quarter cup of egg substitute (or 2 egg whites).
Dressing up the slice of hot meatloaf once it hits the bread is the easy part. Top it with reduced-fat blue cheese crumbles, fresh sliced tomato, and forgo the mayonnaise completely (you don't need it). If you must do some mayo, keep it minimal and keep it light with low-fat mayonnaise (or make a mixture of real mayo and fat-free sour cream). Choosing a 100 percent whole-grain or whole-wheat bread will add bunches of fiber and important nutrients into the mix too.
Original recipe contains 550 calories, 27.5 grams fat, 11.5 grams saturated fat, 143 mg cholesterol, and 1,438 milligrams sodium per serving.
SAVORY CAFE MEATLOAF SANDWICH
For the meatloaf:
For the sandwich:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-by-9-inch baking dish with canola cooking spray.
In a large heavy, nonstick skillet, saute the onion, garlic, celery, carrot and scallion in olive oil over medium heat, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Stir in salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce and 1/3 cup of the ketchup and cook for about 1 minute more.
In large mixing bowl, combine the vegetable mixture, ground beef, breadcrumbs, egg, egg substitute and parsley using your hands (wash them well before and after) or a metal or wood spoon.
Add meatloaf mixture to prepared baking dish and shape into a 9-by-6-inch oval loaf and spread remaining ketchup over the loaf. Bake meatloaf in oven for 1 hour or until cooked throughout. Sprinkle shredded cheddar over the top if desired and return to oven for a couple minutes longer.
To assemble each sandwich. Top a toasted or untoasted slice of bread with a warm slice of meatloaf. Sprinkle about 1 1/2 tablespoons of blue cheese crumbles over the top of the hot meatloaf and top that with several slices of tomato if desired. Add the top slice of bread and serve.
Makes 8 slices.
Elaine Magee is a registered dietitian. Find out more at www.recipedoctor.com.
