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