Non-Hungarian but still Scrumptious Meatloaf

Growing up, the day my mother bought chopped meat was an all-day cooking spree. She bought a package of dark ground chicken, a package of dark ground turkey, and a package of light ground - either chicken or turkey, I think chicken. (Chopped beef is not a big Hungarian 'item' for some reason, though I do love to buy ground veal when it's available.) Altogether she had about 5 pounds of meat which she mixed with chopped onions, chopped garlic, spices, and bread which had been soaked and squeezed. These 5 pounds of meat were turned into a pot of delicious meatballs, a few trays of burgers and even a meatloaf or two.

I followed her tradition for a long time. One chopped meat shopping spree guaranteed me one or two suppers a week for about two months. It was great to stock up before Pesach so that I had a defrosted supper even during those hectic days. In my cooking peak, when I had one child and was a stay at home mom, my freezer was always full of containers of meatballs, trays of burgers, and a meatloaf or two.

THe problem was.... this method is extremely time consuming. And unfortunately, for some reason, my family is not big on chopped meat. Frozen meatballs defrosted forever in the microwave is my husband's idea of an "I-didnt-have-time-to-cook-today" supper. So for a while I didn't do any the 'big chopped meat palooza" days.

Which meant that we ate endless rounds of baked, broiled, and cooked chicken, and fried chicken cutlets. It gets tiring after a while.

About 2 years ago i came across a delicious-looking meatloaf recipe in one of the magazines - I cannot recall if it was in the Binah or the Family First, forgive me. (I'd be delightfully shocked if any of my readers knows.) I normally am very wary of trying magazine recipes because they call for truly exotic ingredients, and are very un-Hungarian. I never owned cumin, coriander, tarragon, lime juice, pine nuts, shallots, sesame oil and who knows what else. If it's on my spice rack or easily accessible in  my grocery store, you're talkin'. So this recipe had some really accessible and not-too-outlandish ingredients and I decided to give it a try. To my surprise, it went over very well. Even Dovi likes it! So I made it from time to time, and I did again tonight. The beauty of this recipe is that despite its long list, prep time is really not long. I whipped this up in 20 minutes and I didn't even take out my food processor.

The one little downside of this recipe is that I think it's a wee bit too spicey for delicate Hungarian palates. I did have to adjust the recipe a bit but I don't remember how. I think I put in a LOT less parsley; I used dry parsley flakes and 1/3 of a cup of that is really a lot. Tonight I did use frozen parsley but even there 1/3 cup seemed excessive and I just used 3 cubes. I think what gives this recipe its delicious kick is the whole wheat bread soaked in soy milk. In non kosher recipes, milk is added to chicken a lot, and I found that the soymilk in the recipe gave it its delicious moistness while the whole wheat kept the batter very much together. I didn't take out the processor and just grated the bread by hand, chopped the onion by hand and crushed the garlic with a crusher. I did it all in one bowl, then put it on a broiler pan/foil in the oven and voila! In an hour we'll hopefully have something the kids will like. I did put more meat than called for into the recipe,since I remembered it was too spicy with just 2 pounds of meat; I think I put in 3 pounds. I used dark and light chicken only, no turkey. But I can't tell you yet how it came out as I haven't tasted it yet!

I'm posting the recipe here EXACTLY as it was written in the magazine. Adjust it according to your taste. Let me know it comes out and if your family liked this.

10 points to you if you remember which magazine it's from. I think Family First.

2 slices whole wheat bread

2 1/2 tbsp soymilk pref unsweetened

1/2 c ketchup divided

1 lb chopped meat

1 lb chopped turkey

1 sm onion chopped, sauteed if desired

1/3 c chopped parsley

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp salt or to taste

1/4 tsp black pepper or to taste

1 tsp paprika

1 lg clove garlic crushed

1 egg

preheat oven to 350

place bread in food processor, pulse into coarse breadcrumbs

place breadcrumbs & soymilk in small bowl let stand for five minutes

combine with 2 tbsp ketchup  & remaining ingredients

shape mixture into a loaf

& place in pan

broiler pan is best because fat drips off

spray with cooking spray

spread remaining 6 tbsp ketchup on top of meatloaf

bake for 1 hr, let stand for 10 minutes