Kapes' Kitchen: Turkey meatloaf w/ spinach and feta

Lucky me! I got to stay home tonight while the man went out shopping. So what exactly is on his grocery list for tonight's much anticipated turkey meatloaf?

• Ground turkey meat (1-1.5 lb.): I recommend the Honeysuckle White as opposed to store brand if you're shopping at HEB. I also generally go with ~85% lean; I'd rather cook out the fat myself than risk ground turkey or beef that is too lean and rubbery.
• Bread crumbs: If you forget the bread crumbs, you can actually just toast some bread for this recipe then break it up into small bits. This works well for this particular dish, however I NEVER recommend making your own breadcrumbs! This takes far too much time and effort (unless the bread is super-stale) and takes away from time with your company. I often use 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs and 1/4–1/2 cups torn wheat bread in this recipe.
• Egg (1)
• Diced onion (3/4–1 cup)
• Diced or minced garlic (4–6 cloves)
• Toasted pine nuts (1/3 cup): I strongly recommend getting your pine nuts in the bulk section of HEB. To toast: Preheat oven to 325 º. Place the pine nuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet, baking dish, or (my personal favorite bit of ovenware) a piece of foil. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until pine nuts are browned.
• Feta cheese: I used to buy the pre-crumbled Athenos feta at HEB, however I realized I could save quite a bit of money by buying the block. Self-crumbling isn't nearly as difficult as I thought! Just drag the tines of a fork along the top of the block while it's still in the packages. Carefully shake off the crumbles into a bowl, and you've saved a ton of money and probably have feta for next time (it keeps well in the fridge for quite a while)! I recommend using about 3/4 of a cup for this recipe, but this part has a lot to do with personal taste.
• Spinach: I recommend fresh, however frozen works just as well, as long as you let it thaw, and then squeeze out most of the water using a (strong) paper towel. I like a lot of spinach, and use about a 2 cups of fresh spinach or one cup frozen.
• Salt and Pepper
• Be creative! Dry mustard is often put into meatloaf, so that might be an option. For you creative cooks: Look in your cabinet and post what your favorite "secret" ingredient is here!

HOW TO MAKE IT

Combine everything except the spinach, pine nuts, and feta into a bowl. Mix well; this is best done by kneading the mixture with clean hands until it is somewhat uniform. Gently fold in the pine nuts and spinach until they're pretty evenly dispersed throughout the loaf. Mold the mixture into a rough loaf shape, and then flatten it out, keeping it at about the same length. Sprinkle the feta cheese over the flattened loaf, and then roll the meatloaf so that the feta ends up in the center (see pictures).




It doesn't need to be perfect! Reform the loaf, place on a baking sheet and cook at 350–375 ºF for about 1-1.25 hours.

*Note: If you split this into two mini-loaves, you can cut your cook time down to about 45 min.

This dish is ideal for dinner parties. Although it involves a bit of prep, this can all be done beforehand, and by the time your guests arrive you can have the dish in the oven and the kitchen tided, leaving plenty of time for you to enjoy pre-dinner cocktails with your guests!



Recommended sides: Baked sweet potato, jasmine rice, brown and wild rice mix (available in Central Market's bulk foods section), sugar snap peas (store brand frozen are delicious and easy, but don't cook for nearly as long as the package says)