Mini Meatloaves

We have family coming for Christmas, and of course I want to make a feast they'll remember - in a good way. These fine folks are all omnis on their own time, and they know they'll be fed vegan-style here. I don't know if they're dreading it in any way. I hope not. But my plan is to absolutely wow them with everything I cook. I decided to test two recipes last night, for sort of a preview feast. I actually considered making both of these for our Christmas dinner, but quickly realized I'd better narrow it down to one. The question was, which one? These are both beautiful, and both delicious, but the real deciding factor had to be, Which one would meat eaters prefer? Two bites into our sampler plates, Rick and I looked up at the same time and said, Meatloaf! You know it's not meat-meatloaf, right? Duh. This one is a crowd pleaser.

The runner up is Risi Bisi, from the wonderful Graham Kerr. You think of him as the mostly-meat Galloping Gourmet, right? Well he's changed his tune, and is now promoting a plant based diet! How about that? More on Graham in an upcoming post. For now, sample this recipe for yourself. You'll only need to modify it a little bit to take it from vegetarian to vegan. I used nutritional yeast instead of the parmesan cheese, and kale instead of arugula. It's beautiful and delicious!

While I love the look of the fancy Risi Bisi, the meatloaf won out for me because I wanted to serve up heaping plates of familiar looking comfort food. I want mashed potatoes and gravy and cranberries and vegetables, and I think everyone will love it. This meatloaf comes from Everyday Happy Herbivore. I changed it only a little bit, and then baked it as little individual loaves in a muffin tin, with the addition of a baked-in glaze. It's so good you don't really need the gravy, but we're having it anyway. (Here's the gravy recipe. Sub water for the oil to make it lower fat, and every bit as good.)

Tempeh Meatloaf
makes 6 muffin-loaves

1 (8 oz.) package tempeh, grated
1 cup quick oats
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
2 T nutritional yeast
2 T ground flax seeds
1 T herbs de provence
1/4 cup ketchup
2 T dijon mustard

Mix everything together well, with a spoon and your hands.
Season to taste (yes, you can taste it because it isn't meat).
Allow to rest 5-10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350º, and lightly oil a muffin tin.

For the glaze, Mix 1 T each ketchup, tamari, and maple syrup.
Place 1 1/2 tsp of glaze in the bottom of 6 muffin cups of the oiled muffin tin.
Gently press about 1/3 cup of the meatloaf mixture into the muffin cups.
Bake at 350º for about 30 minutes.
Let cool for 5 minutes, then gently loosen the edges of the loaves and carefully turn onto a plate or cutting board.
Serve with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, or anything else that makes your heart sing. I love this with a side of homemade cranberries.