Lean ground turkey meat can be prepared to taste just as delicious for any recipe that calls for ground beef. This turkey meatloaf is loaded with flavour and is also unbelievably moist.
Turkey has less fat than the meat you might typically use for meatloaf, so it tends to end up dry. The trick is adding lots of ingredients as fillers that will add flavour and moisture to help make the end product juicier.
Egg-citing Turkey Meatloaf
This turkey meatloaf is loaded with tons of flavours – sauteed onion, mushrooms, celery, carrots, tri-colour peppers, and green pepper topped off with chopped cranberries for a bit of sweetness. What makes this recipe different is it calls for hard-boiled eggs, which is optional, of course, but I love to add them since I learned to cook it that way. My mom always includes the eggs, so it has become kind of traditional in my family.
As an adult, I can look at it fondly, but as a kid, not so much. I was finicky (you might see me say that often), and I didn’t get egg-cited (ouch!) about seeing the eggs at all. Instead, I looked at it as if it were a foreign object, wondering why there was a breakfast item in the middle of my dinner plate? The funny thing is, as I got older, I grew to like it, somehow. The combination of the egg and the meat in a meatloaf seems to complement each other. I think the eggs add a little something extra, but hey, that’s just my opinion. It still tastes great without it.
Give it a try. This egg-citing turkey meatloaf is wonderfully moist and delicious. I promise you won’t have to bury it with tons of gravy, especially if you’re trying to cut back on those extra calories.
Moist and Flavorful Turkey Meatloaf
Ingredients
1 pound ground turkey (minced turkey) - lean
1 small onion - diced
1 stick celery - chopped
1 cup carrots - chopped- 1 cup small tri-colour peppers - 1 of each colour
½ cup green pepper (green capsicum)
1 cup mushrooms
1 medium egg - beaten
½ cup ketchup
1 ½ cup cranberries - finely chopped- ½ cup plain breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon sage
1 pinch cayenne pepper - optional
1 teaspoon salt - to taste
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Boil eggs for 12-15 minutes, cool down in cold water and then peel.
- Saute in onions, celery, mushrooms, and the peppers in olive oil until they are soft, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside, and allow to cool down before adding to the ground turkey.
- Place meat in a large mixing bowl, add the beaten egg, breadcrumbs, ketchup, cranberries, carrots, sage, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and (so you won’t get burned) the cooled sauteed vegetables. Mix well by hand.
- Scoop half of the mixture onto the greased baking dish. Place peeled eggs in the centre and cover with the remaining half.
- Pat gently to smooth out evenly.
- Bake for 1 ½ hour and check after an hour to see if too many liquid forms around the sides. Drain it out (or preserve it to make gravy) and place it back into the oven.
- Remove from oven, and allow to sit for 15 minutes. (Internal temperature should reach 160°F.)
