Brown Sugar Glazed Turkey Meatloaf Recipe

Meatloaf gets a bad rap. I’m not sure why (it’s one of the most popular entrees at the trendy Ivy restaurant in Santa Monica). And every time I make a meatloaf it is devoured with gusto. Or maybe my family is simply crazy for old fashioned comfort food. My latest variation for gluten-free meatloaf is to use cornbread to make gluten-free breadcrumbs. This makes for an amazingly flavorful and moist meatloaf that cozies up rather well to my favorite Brown Sugar Glaze.

1 3/4 lbs. ground turkey
1 small sweet or red onion, peeled
1 medium to large carrot, peeled, trimmed
3 cloves fresh peeled garlic
1/2 cup good tasting tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon molasses
1 organic free-range egg (or omit for egg-free and use 1 more tablespoon molasses)
3/4 cup gluten-free cornbread crumbs
A pinch of nutmeg
A pinch of cinnamon
1 teaspoon thyme
Sea salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Put the ground turkey into a large bowl and using a fork or spoon, break it apart it a bit.
Roughly chop the onion and carrot into same sized chunks and place them into a food processor;
add the garlic; pulse until the veggies are uniformly diced- fine- not too chunky;
add them to the turkey.
Toss lightly with a spoon or fork to quickly distribute the veggies.
Add the ketchup, molasses, egg (if using), cornbread crumbs, spices and thyme.
Mix it all up using a light touch; try not to over-mix it into mush (over-mixing makes for a dense loaf).
If the mixture is too dry at this point, add a little more ketchup. If it feels too wet, add more cornbread crumbs. You want a nice stick-together balance.
Spoon the meatloaf mixture into a standard size loaf pan and firmly press into place, smoothing and rounding the top of the loaf so that the sides are lower than the edge of the loaf pan (you don’t want the glaze spilling over the sides later on).
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, make your brown sugar glaze.

Brown Sugar Meatloaf Glaze

Stir to combine:

1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar, to taste
1 teaspoon honey mustard
A small pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon

At the 45 minute mark, remove the loaf from the oven.
Spoon the glaze mixture on top of the loaf.
Bake for an additional 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 180 degrees F.
Allow the cooked loaf to cool for ten minutes or so before slicing and serving.

Serves 4 to 6.