Born to be a cheap yet filling alternative to meat, meatloaves only need to get rid of their carb fetters to be a delicious high quality meal on our table.

During the Great Depression economists were baffled from the fact that when potato prices rose due to shortages, a lot more potatoes were bought. Upon examination they found that as people couldn’t afford to buy the way more expensive meat in order to meet their daily calorie demand.

Their solution was further reducing the amount of meat they bought and substituting that with potatoes. People prefer to have a full belly, and if that means that we have something that remotely reminds us of something else then so be it.

This is how meatloaves (and Mazda Miata) came to existence too. A reminder of a better era while still providing comfort in times of need, gobbling up everything that were left out of somewhere or fallen off.

It’s fascinating to see though that once we got used to something, even if that was a substitution for something else, we have a really hard time letting it go. Probably this is the reason that many recipes which have a low carb keto version of meatloaf calls for substitution of breadcrumbs by something low carb like almond or coconut flour.

It seems that none took notice that starch was added to meatloaf to substitute meat in the first place. Hence when preparing a keto low crab meatloaf what we need to do is simply leaving out the starch.

Meatloaves are quite forgiving and low maintenance dishes. We can experiment with them by mixing various ground meats together, throwing in leftover vegetables or simply trying out our new herbs or spices on them.

Ingredients

Beginner

2lb / 1kg Ground meat
2 Eggs
1 Onion or Scallion (finely diced)
2 clove Garlic
1 cup Tomato paste or puree (optional)
2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Black pepper

Advanced

2lb / 1kg Ground meat
2 Eggs
1 Onion or Scallion (finely diced)
1 Green pepper (diced)
2 clove Garlic
1 cup Tomato paste or puree
2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Black pepper
5oz / 150g Cheese (Aged British Cheddar, Parmesan…)
1 cup Tomato sauce
- 1 cup / 250ml Pureed tomato (approx. 3 tomato)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Black pepper
- 2 teaspoon Paprika (smoked if any)
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 2 teaspoon Apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Cloves

Overkill

½ cup / 150ml Oil
1 medium Onion
1 stalk Celery
1 teaspoon Salt
3 clove Garlic
1 teaspoon Black pepper
2 medium Tomato (diced) or 1 cup Puree
2lb / 1kg Ground meat
2 Eggs
5oz / 150g Cheese (Aged British Cheddar, Parmesan…)
2 teaspoon Salt
5 oz / 150g Bacon or Pancetta or Guanciale
1 cup Tomato sauce
- 1 cup / 250ml Pureed tomato (approx. 3 tomato)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Black pepper
- 2 teaspoon Paprika (smoked if any)
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 2 teaspoon Apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Cloves

How to make Keto meatloaf

Beginner

Mix all the ingredients, except the tomato together in a bowl.
Place the mixture onto a baking tray and form a loaf from it. Applying oil on our hands before handling the meat helps preventing the meat sticking to it.
Place the tray into a 350°F / 180°C oven until the internal temperature of the loaf reaches 145°F / 63°C. It will take about 45 to 60 minutes.
If a browner crust is required place the loaf onto a higher rack and increase the temperature to max until the desired color is achieved. This generally takes about 10 minutes.

Adavanced

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Place the mixture onto a baking tray and form a loaf from it. Applying oil on our hands before handling the meat helps preventing the meat sticking to it.
Place the tray into a 350°F / 180°C oven for a half an hour.
While the meat is roasting in the oven make the tomato sauce. This can be done beforehand and taken out of the freezer or if in dire needs, some ketchup would do it too. Check out how to make Tomato sauce, BBQ sauce or Bravas sauce in the: Low Carb Condiments
After half an hour of roasting take the meatloaf out and spread the tomato sauce on top.
Place the meatloaf back into the oven and roast 30 minutes more on a higher rack.
After 30 minutes the meatloaf should be ready. If we aren’t happy with the consistency or color of the tomato on top we can roast it for another 10 – 15 minutes on the highest temperature. This extra roasting will darken and thicken the sauce.

Overkill

Heat oil in a frying pan. Add diced onion, celery, salt and saute on high heat for about 5 – 10 minutes.
Add crushed garlic, black pepper and saute until garlic gets fragrant for about 3 minutes.
It’s time to pour in the tomato puree or add the chopped tomato with a half cup of water.
Cook the mixture for about 5 -10 minutes until the water evaporates and the tomatoes break up into a mush.
Place the eggs, salt and ground meat into a bowl.
Add the shredded cheese.
Pour in the tomato sauce preferably cooled.
Mix everything together.
Apply oil on our hands.
Place the meat mixture onto a baking tray.
Form the loaf.
Cover the loaf with thin bacon, guanciale or pancetta slices.
Place it into a 350°F / 180°C oven for 30 minutes.
While the meat is roasting in the oven make the tomato sauce. This can be done beforehand and taken out from the freezer or if in dire needs some ketchup would do it too. Check out how to make Tomato sauce, BBQ sauce or Bravas sauce in the: Low Carb Condiments. Optionally we can make double of the sauce we can use as a filling and use half of it for brushing. Apply the tomato sauce on top generously.
Place the meatloaf back into the oven. After 30 minutes the meatloaf should be ready. If we aren’t happy with the consistency or color of the tomato on top we can roast 10 – 15 minutes more on the highest temperature. This extra roasting will darken and thicken the sauce. It may also burn some spiky bacon a bit.