Meatloaf with Asian flavors

Last week I was looking for recipes that would fulfill two criteria: I could make them ahead of time and bake later in the week and I would have leftovers for one lunch box. I was flipping through my magazine recipe index and came across a Rachael Ray full of meatloaf recipes. I pulled the issue out for a closer look and decided on an Asian meatloaf for a couple reasons. One, it used turkey meat. Two, it had chili paste in the glaze. Three, I had just about all the ingredients already in my pantry.

This came together very quickly:

The recipe calls for a small grated onion but I had a pretty large one so I used half and grated it on a micro-plane. I have a feeling the results were a much finer grate than was intended but truthfully the onion mush incorporated into the meat really well and I think helped keep the turkey meat moist.

1.5 pounds ground turkey, onion mush, 1 clove garlic chopped, 5 oz. can water chestnuts chopped, 1/4 c. soy sauce, 1 egg, and 1/4 scallions chopped into a mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix! But not too much. Just enough to get everything squashed together and the egg holding everybody in place.

Now, bringing in that single girl serving mentality I decided to form 2 loaves out of this mix so that I could put on in the freezer for a lazy day. I mixed up the glaze which was 1/2 c. ketchup, 2 T chili paste, and 1 T. light brown sugar and spread half on the loaf I was planning on baking and saved the other half to put on towards the end of baking.

So into the oven at 400 for about 50 minutes. I shaved off 10ish minutes of the original baking time because it was a smaller loaf. I added the additional glaze with about 10 to go.

I was incredibly happy with the final product. It was moist and full of flavor. There were little crunchy spots because of the water chestnuts (which I love) and the sweet and spicy glaze was delicious. I think next time I will add some red pepper flakes into the meat and little more chili paste in the glaze just for some more zing but overall I was definitely diggin this meatloaf!

I served with roasted cauliflower that I covered in the extra glaze...yummm. PS I know this is not a beautiful food photo but whatever I was mid meal when I remembered to take it!