Meatless Meatloaf {What’s Cooking Wednesday}

Raise your hand if you never ate meatloaf as a child. (That’s me…slowly raises hand.) I know, crazy, right? Because meatloaf was foreign to me, I always was mesmerized by it when I’d go over to friends’ houses. Now that my husband is vegan, I challenged myself to put a spin on this American classic and create a meatless meatloaf for the family!

It may seem like there are a lot of ingredients in this recipe, but I promise it comes together quickly! We ate half for dinner (and had some leftovers for sandwiches the next day) and I froze the other half for an easy meal next time I’m in a bind.

Ingredients

• 2 cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 c panko breadcrumbs
• 1/2 c unsweetened non-dairy milk
• 3 tbsp worcestershire sauce (make sure it’s vegan if that matters to you!)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• season with salt and pepper

For the Glaze:

• 1/4 c tomato paste
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp paprika

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375. Spray a 9 inch loaf pan and place a piece of parchment paper width-wise along the center with some hanging over the sides. This will ensure the loaf comes out of the pan easy-peasy.
2. Place all the meatloaf ingredients into a food processor. (If your food processor is small like mine, you may have to do this in a few batches!) Pulse until the chickpeas are broken up and well mixed, but be careful not to overblend.
3. Press mixture into your greased loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes.
4. While your loaf is baking, whisk together all of the glaze ingredients in a medium bowl. 
5. After 30 minutes, remove the loaf from the over and top it with the glaze.
6. Put it back into the over and bake for another 20 minutes.
7. Finally, remove it from the oven and allow the loaf to cool for at least 15 minutes. (Tip: The longer you let it sit, the better the loaf will stick together!)

Our meatless meatloaf was a huge dinner hit with the family and despite how overwhelming the ingredient list may look, it was pretty easy to prepare and bake!