Meatloaf with heaven and earth mash and broccoli

Ah, meatloaf - the much maligned and unloved dish often referred to with disgust on TV shows such as Happy Days, and which I confess to loathing as a child. However, as a grown-up, I have rediscovered the joys of a good meatloaf, especially as a comfort food on cold winter nights.

This meatloaf is a rather ugly looking beast, but it is very tasty. The recipe is from Woolworths Fresh magazine from May 2006, and is as follows (with my modifications):

1 chopped onion
1 crushed garlic clove
600g mince (lamb or beef)
1 tbspn gravy mix
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1tbspn mixed herbs
2 tbpns tomato paste
1 egg
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius, and grease a 6 cup capacity loaf tin. Fry onion and garlic until soft, then transfer to a bowl to cool. Add mince, breadcrumbs, gravy mix, herbs, tomato paste and egg to the onion and garlic, and combine well (I find using my hands to do the mixing is the best). Stir through the frozen vegetables, and transfer the mixture to the prepared loaf tin. Place in the oven on a baking tray, and bake for 1 hour. Remove the cooked meatloaf from the oven drain off the excess liquid, remove from the tin and slice into 6 serves. (The recipe recommends using 1kg mince, but for dietary reasons, I have limited the serves to 100g of mince.)



I served my meatloaf with "heaven and earth" mash (so named by Nigella Lawson), comprising of mashed potato and apple, tomato sauce (ketchup) and steamed broccoli. My verdict: homely but delicious.