Our Healthy Meatloaf Recipe takes the classic meatloaf recipe and adds tons of delicious vegetables and seasonings. You will enjoy every single slice of this grass-fed beef meatloaf.
Meatloaf is the New Thing
It’s true, meatloaf is being found on menus in high end restaurants… and your local mom and pop diner. It’s a satisfying, crowd-pleasing dish when it’s made with mouth-watering healthy beef, loaded with vegetables and topped with a rich marinara sauce.
So, having a really great healthy meatloaf recipe is imperative when you’re hosting dinner. Because, when it comes to creating a crowd-pleasing dinner dish, meatloaf is almost always a guaranteed winner.
How To Make a Delicious (and Moist) Healthy Meatloaf Recipe
For years, I skipped making meatloaf for my family. A big log of meat doesn’t sound exciting to me. A few years ago I started experimenting with ways to add flavor, dimension and moisture without using 90% meat. Keeping with the Clean Cuisine guidelines, adding in lots of whole vegetables seemed to do the trick.
Then, the savory marinara sauce sealed the deal for this recipe.
Start with a Big Vegetable Base
With most of our recipes, we like to start with a big vegetable base. For this delicious and moist healthy meatloaf recipe, I added mushrooms, onion, carrots, celery, red bell pepper and loads of garlic.
If you love tomato paste as much as me, feel free to add in a little bit more when you’re mixing the meatloaf together.
Next, Source Only Grass-fed and Grass-finished Beef
It’s true, grass-fed and grass-finished pastured beef has an incredible flavor. Once you enjoy beef that’s been raised healthy, you will always be able to note the difference. Another great reason to up the vegetables is that you save money on the beef. You can learn more about choosing beef here.
If you’re not a beef-eating family, you can definitely substitute the beef with lean ground turkey.
What Side Dishes go well with Healthy Meatloaf Recipe?
This recipe will seem like it has all the vegetables you need, but a hearty salad pairs really well. You can also add homemade mashed potatoes using cashew cream to keep it non-dairy. I also love making these homemade gluten free biscuits.
This healthy meatloaf recipe also pairs nicely with a large side salad or a savory rosemary and pecan rice casserole.
PrintHealthy Meatloaf Recipe
Our Healthy Meatloaf Recipe takes the classic meatloaf recipe and adds tons of delicious vegetables and seasonings. You will enjoy every single slice of this grass-fed beef meatloaf.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 6–8 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: German
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Spanish onion, finely diced
- 3 carrots, finely diced
- 2 celery stalks, finely diced
- 2 red bell peppers, finely diced
- 2 cups mushrooms, finely diced
- 1 pound grass-fed pastured ground beef
- 8 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 organic pastured egg, such as Vital Farms
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons organic Italian seasoning
- 2 teaspoons unrefined sea salt
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup marinara sauce, such as Roa’s
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking pan with parchment paper.
- Add the onion, carrots, celery and peppers to a food processor and pulse until finely diced. You can also use a knife or mandolin. Add the mushrooms separately and pulse until finely diced. Careful not to over-pulse the mushrooms or you may have mushroom-puree.
- Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet, such as this 12″ skillet from Xtrema over medium-heat. When the skillet is hot, add the mushrooms, onions, carrots, celery and red bell pepper. Sauté for 7 to 8 minutes, or until vegetables are soft.
- Transfer the softened vegetables to a large mixing bowl and let cool down for approximately 10 minutes; stirring occasionally to release the steam.
- While the vegetables cool, in a small bowl, add the crushed garlic, egg, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, Italian seasoning, and salt and whisk until well combined. Add in the oats and mix again.
- Add the beef and garlic mixture to the vegetables in the large mixing bowl. Use your hands to mix ingredients together.
- Place the vegetable-meat mixture on the center of the parchment paper and shape into a large loaf, about 1-inch thick.
- Spread the marinara sauce over the meatloaf.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until meat is cooked through and no longer pink. Remove meatloaf from oven and set aside to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm.
What’s Your Favorite Vegetable to Add to Meatloaf?
I would love to hear about it! Please feel free to share the recipe or link in the comments below!
Joanie Kirk says
I added roasted red peppers and green chile to above recipe my meatloaf and topped with rosehip chile tomato catsup.
To another loaf added wild mushrooms, morels, shaggy mane to veggie mix.
★★★★
Aimee Harris Niedosik says
Wow Joanie, this sounds amazing. Thanks for the review.
Cat says
Hi there, just wondering about the calorie content? I didn’t see it anywhere but could have overlooked it. Thank you!
Nicole says
For the tang from not using tomatoes, just add some vinegar. I like the idea of using stake sauce in it. I am going to do this. I do not have ketchup so I am using a ginger soy salad dressing instead and topping it with some dried seasoned salad toppigs. I am wanting to add some cabbage in mine and plan to blend it because of some picky visiters. Do you have to cook it before blending it?
Nicole says
Can you substitute the beef for tempeh?:)
Ivy Larson says
Yes Nicole! I think that would actually work just fine.
Rachel says
Can anything be substituted for the 1/4 cup tomatoe paste? My little guy can’t have tomatoes. Thank you
Ivy Larson says
Hi Rachel, Hmmmm…although I have not tried it, I think maybe you could substitute pureed butternut squash. That should give you the right texture, it just won’t give you the “tang” you would get from the tomato paste. It should end up just being a more mild-flavored meatloaf, but I do think it will still be good! Please let me know how it works out if you give it a try….
Amishlady717 says
Your meatloaf looks yummy…..looking forward to making it……what a great looking dinner….now where was dessert ? 🙂 Something healthy of course…..
★★★★★
Ivy Larson says
Thanks so much =) Oh and yes! I too love dessert!! Check out my latest dessert recipe for strawberry ice cream (has the same yummy taste and creamy texture as the real deal, minus the dairy and refined sugar) here is the recipe: https://cleancuisine.com/how-to-make-strawberry-ice-cream/
Brenda Flahery says
Hi, since I’m allergic to beef and mushrooms, can I substitute ground turkey? What could I replace the mushrooms with? Thanks for your help!
Sincerely,
Brenda
Ivy Larson says
Hi Brenda! Oh yes, you can absolutely use ground turkey in place of the beef (just look for pastured turkey!) As for the mushrooms, hmmmmm….I think chopped cauliflower might actually work very well! You’ll want to chop it before you saute and then when you put everything in the food processor it will be “super chopped”! I am almost certain this will work. Please keep me posted and let me know =)
Cherryl Friedman says
You recommended shaping into a one inch high loaf. Yet the picture looks thicker……
Also can you give cooking time for half of the recipe, baked in an 8 x 4 or 9×5 loaf pan?
Looks very yummy, and there are only two of us! Thanks!
Ivy Larson says
Hi Cherryl! We ate the whole thing up, so I no longer have leftovers to measure =( However, I am pretty sure it was about an inch—but, to be honest, I don’t think it makes a huge difference in the cooking time if its a bit shorter or taller. However, I DO think that cooking the meatloaf in a loaf pan rather than on the parchment WOULD make a difference. So, if you are going to cut the recipe in half, I would just shape your loaf on the open parchment like I did and make it a smaller loaf overall (but not necessarily any shorter in height—only in length) I hope that makes sense? If you just make the whole thing smaller the cooking time might only be reduced by about 8 minutes. I would test it 37 minutes and see if it is cooked through. If not, cook it for about 5 more minutes (close to the full cooking time) and I am almost certain that will work! Please let me know if you have any other questions…