Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Black Beans + Beets + Ground Chicken = Meatloaf?

My mom has a great meatloaf recipe that we always turn to this time of year. A couple weeks ago I was halfway through preparing it when I realized that the ground beef I had purchased was past its prime and needed to be ditched.

Since the recipe was already half-executed, I decided to try a trick that a friend of mine Nicole O shared with me recently. I replaced about 1/3 of the meat with ground black beans.

The old recipe called for:

1 1/4 pounds lean ground beef, 1 1/4 pounds ground turkey and then the various other ingredients...

My variation:

2 pounds ground chicken and 1 15oz can of black beans, drained and pureed with...a few tablespoons of beet, yes beet.

Why beets? Well, red meat is, obviously, red. I felt it would make the meatloaf look more realistic. And guess what? SPH didn't even realize it was different.

The puree--looks gross, I know...
the ground chicken before the black beans and beets:
the meat mixture after:
into some muffin tins:
and the finished result, looking just like it was made with meat:




Black Bean and Chicken "Meat"loaf
2 pounds ground chicken
1 15 oz can of black beans, drained, rinsed and pureed
2-3 slices of beets (optional)
1 egg white
2 T milk
3/4 c panko or bread crumbs
1 large onion, minced
3-4 T horseradish
2 T fresh parsley (or 2 t dried)
1 t salt
1/2 t ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix all the ingredients except the meat. Add the chicken and mix with your hands and shape into a oval, almost like a football*. Cook on 375 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, or until the inside is no longer pink, or a meat thermometer reads 180 degrees.

*Obviously, we did something different with our meatloaf mixture...more on that tomorrow!

Thanks for the great black bean tip Nicole!
--SPC

9 comments:

Erin said...

I LOVE the mini meatloaf idea...Way more kid friendly!
I also love that you just happen to have beets : )

Anonymous said...

Very impressive! And like Erin, nick and merrick, I love that you had beets lying around. I've got over 50 lbs of black beans now and always looking for ways to use them.

Cheffie-Mom said...

Very cool and fun - such a great idea! Thanks!

Slacker Mama said...

In my household, we'd be much more likely to have spare ground beef hanging around than beets...

Tabitha Blue said...

Looks very interesting... but I love the idea of the mini or individual meatloaf servings!! Great idea!

I don't think I'll be in Columbus soon... but in the Cleveland area during the time of the Auto Show there! :)... not too far, right?

Anonymous said...

This looks great ... I love both black beans and beets and like the idea of a healthy twist on meatloaf. We're having a comfort food recipe contest and would love to have you enter. Check it out at MarxFood.com

Live.Love.Eat said...

That's definitely unique!!!!! Love the individual servings!!!

Unknown said...

I love your 'meat' loaf idea. Check out this Comfort Food Recipe Contest: http://marxfood.com/comfort-food-recipes-contest/ Maybe you'd have a shot!

Perkins Thomas said...

I wish for the great of success in all of our destiny endeavors