Recipe shocker: Zucchini adds moisture, flavor to meatloaf

This column was first published on June 9, 2015.

Zucchini's about to burst out of gardens all over the place. If you're growing zucchini, what're you gonna do with it all?

Over the years, I've shared several zucchini recipes to help you use up some of your rapidly multiplying and quickly maturing zucchini and summer squash.

One recipe showed you how to use a mandolin to create spaghetti-like zucchini strands to substitute for pasta and significantly reduce carbs and calories when paired with my homemade Bolognese sauce.

Last year's Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread was a huge winner. Folks who made it couldn't stop talking about it.

You'll find it hard to believe what I suggest you do with zucchini this year: meatloaf.

Really.

Meatloaf has been on my top-five favorite comfort foods list ever since I understood what comfort food was. (Mac and cheese tops that list, followed closely by tuna noodle casserole, scratch-made chocolate pudding and grilled cheese sandwiches).

My meatloaf story begins with a late spring retreat. We were in charge of a Saturday dinner for 23 people. Over the past few years, spiral-sliced ham had been that dinner's protein centerpiece.

At first, I thought, instead of ham, it might be fun and retro to make Ann Landers' world-famous meatloaf first appearing in her advice column more than 60 years ago. Landers' use of a dried onion soup mix containing partially hydrogenated soybean oil (trans fats), monosodium glutamate (you know it as MSG), and some other chemicals I didn't recognize sent that idea into a tailspin.

Perhaps the past should stay there.

I headed to one of my cookbooks and pulled out my recipe for an all-beef meatloaf that used unsweetened, drained applesauce to maintain moisture; that recipe was glued together with eggs and bread crumbs and was loaded with reduced-fat cheddar cheese.

We omitted the cheese because some folks had dairy issues and made four large meatloaves, thinking some might be left over to be scarfed up on a late-night meatloaf sandwich raid.

Forty-five minutes into the baking, the meatloaf's aroma from the onions and the ketchup topping got folks wandering into the kitchen eager to see what they were having for dinner. In no time, we had just a stub of one meatloaf remaining. Goodbye late-night meatloaf sandwiches.

After being home for a week, I wanted to make another meatloaf. This time, though, because I stay away from wheat as much as possible, I tried to make this meatloaf without the bread crumbs used on the retreat.

In addition, I had some fresh zucchini parked in my refrigerator, yearning to be used, thinking that zucchini would add some moisture to my lean loaf. I also added minced fresh garlic because its flavor marries so well with zucchini.

How did it turn out? Sensational.

It may not be as good as the one Ann Landers shared more than 60 years ago, but I'll bet folks will head to your kitchen because it smells so good. And they will be satisfied with the flavor too. Give it a try.

• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at 1leanwizard@gmail.com.

Wheat-free, No-Added-Sugar All-Beef Meatloaf

¾ cup unsweetened organic applesauce

2 large eggs

⅓ cup minced onion

2 large garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley (Italian flat leaf, preferred)

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 pounds 85% lean ground beef (100% grass-fed, preferred)

1 cup coarse grated fresh zucchini (do not peel)

½ cup ketchup

Place a wire mesh strainer over a deep bowl, add the applesauce to the strainer and set aside to drain for 15 minutes.

Place the oven rack in the center position and begin heating the oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees if it's a convection oven). Lightly spray the interior bottom and sides of a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan with vegetable oil.

Break the eggs into a medium-large mixing bowl and whisk. Add the drained applesauce, minced onion, minced garlic, chopped parsley, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper and whisk until combined. Before adding the grated zucchini, using your hands, squeeze out some moisture. Then add the zucchini and ground beef to the egg mixture and, with clean hands, combine all the ingredients until well distributed through the ground beef.

Put the meat mixture into the prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top. Spread the ketchup evenly over the top. Bake for 1 hour, or until a digital thermometer inserted into the meatloaf's center registers 160 degrees. Remove from the oven and rest for 15 minutes. Remove the meatloaf from the pan to a platter, slice into sections and serve.

Serves 8

Nutrition values per serving: 302 calories (56% from fat), 19 g fat (7.2 g saturated fat), 8 g carbohydrates, 6.5 g sugars, 24.2 g protein, 157 mg cholesterol, 0.7 g fiber, 562 mg sodium.

Salt Sense: Omitting added salt reduces sodium per serving to 272 milligrams.

Sugars note: The sugars listed in the nutritional analysis come from the ingredients (like the applesauce or ketchup). No sugar has been added to this meatloaf.

Don Mauer