Shawarma Meatloaf with Caramelised Onions

This Shawarma meatloaf from Yotem Ottolenghi's "COMFORT" is a departure from the Aussie style meatloaf I was used to when I was growing up.  A whole suite of  aromatic Shawarma spices and herbs such as cumin, allspice, cinnamon, mint and turmeric are used along with bulgur wheat instead of breadcrumbs. The texture is moist and fluffy thanks to the zucchini, and the burghul and eggs binding it altogether. 

The flavours are delicious, and it's baked in a cast iron round pan not a loaf pan. There a few steps in preparing this comforting meatloaf, but one of the big advantages is that a lot of the preparation can be done in advance. The meatloaf can be basically all made, and sitting ready in your baking pan covered for a day before baking, the onions caramelised in advance and ready to be added as well. Or it can be cooked completely up to a couple of days beforehand, stored in the frig., and just brought back to room temperature and heated through before you serve it. This way, the flavours will also intensify. The pomegranate yoghurt can also be prepared in advance.

Meatloaf always brings back nostalgic memories for me. One of my friends had this recipe as well, but shied away from it on the day, because of the number of ingredients involved. I do quite a lot of cooking which uses these ingredients so I had all of the spices on hand and the pomegranate molasses. I also use bulgur wheat a lot as a replacement for rice and couscous, as it's full of fibre and very nutritious. I am also fortunate that my pot of mint is still battling on, despite the hotter days, as long as it is watered daily. I only needed to buy the coriander. I suggest though that before you start cooking this meatloaf you do an audit of your spice drawer a couple of days in advance,  just to ensure you have the spices you need. When you have these spices, it's great to use them.

Cooking notes and Social Learning:

Lamb mince is expensive, and either lamb or beef mince can be used in this recipe. I am very aware though that there is a cost of living crisis at the moment, and the cost of food is becoming more and more expensive. I wanted to test using beef mince in this recipe. It was delicious. However, if you really want to lash out and impress your friends and family and cook this dish using lamb mince, I know that the results will be spectacular.

On this theme, the original recipe here as I have written up used only 750 g of mince. Using 750 g frustrated me, as to buy mince at the supermarket here, it is packaged in lots of 500g, which means there is 250 g leftover. So I experimented using 1 kg of mince, just to use up the whole kilo. I added 1/2 teaspoon more of the spices, the cumin, paprika, allspice and turmeric to compensate for the extra mince and that worked well. 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper is enough for me, unless you really like it spicy.  I increased the amount of coriander and mint leaves to 20 g as I love those flavours.  This total quantity was the perfect amount for the cast iron frypan I used as well.

Unfortunately pomegranates aren't in season here at the moment, and I searched the supermarket freezers for frozen pomegranate arils to no avail. The pomegranate seeds would have brought some more sweetness to the the flavours of the dish, and they look lovely in photos and on the plate. The red glossy arils (seeds) would contrast beautifully with the richness of the caramelised onions, just saying. I'm looking forward to pomegranates being back in season here.

 This is a meal that keeps on giving. We've eaten two dinners and a lunch from it and the flavours just keep improving.

Just enough left for our lunch

The caramelised onions make this dish, they are jammy and tangy. They can be doubled, or even increase the onions to a kilo, use some more for this dish, and still have delicious onions for the rest of the week for sandwiches and other meals. You won't be sorry.

MEATLOAF:

Serves 8

Ingredients:

750g minced beef (or lamb), 20 % fat if possible

2 onions, grated (265g)

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2-1 teaspoon salt

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice

1 1/4 teaspoons ground turmeric

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

125g bulgur wheat

1 large zucchini (courgette) grated, (200g)

20g coriander, leaves and stems finely chopped, plus 5g extra leaves to serve

20g mint leaves, finely chopped, plus 5g extra leaves to serve

3 tablespoons olive oil

CARAMELISED ONION TOPPING

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 onions, thinly sliced (480 g)

1 teaspoon caster sugar

2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

POMEGRANATE YOGHURT

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses

300g thick Greek yoghurt

2 tablespoons pomegranate seeds to serve, optional, when in season

Method:

To Make the Meatloaf:

Place the grated onions, eggs, garlic, spices and bulgur wheat into a medium to large sized bowl. Cover the bowl, and place in the refrigerator for an hour so that the bulgur can soak and "bloom".

Add the beef, zucchini, coriander, mint, 2 tablespoons of the oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and a good grind of pepper and mix well to combine. Return to the frig until ready to use.

Make the Caramelised onions: These are the star of the show.

 Pour the oil into a  medium saucepan and place on a medium-low heat. Add the onions, sugar, 3/4 teaspoon of salt and some pepper and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring often until slightly caramelised.

Add the spices and the molasses and cook for another 5 minutes. 

The saucepan can now be removed from the stove.

Make the Pomegranate Yoghurt:

Swirl the pomegranate molasses into the yoghurt and put to the side for later.

The pomegranate yoghurt takes this dish to another level again.

Let's cook:

Preheat your oven to 180 deg. fan-forced.

Choose a 28cm cast-iron oven-proof saute pan, or a stainless steel Scanpan would work, place it on the stove hotplate, on a high heat, add 1 tablespoon of the remaining olive oil, and spread it in the pan.

Tip in the meatloaf mixture and, use your fingers to quickly pat down the mixture, and then place the pan in the oven straight away.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven, and spread the caramelised onion topping evenly across the surface of the meatloaf, and bake for a further 12 minutes.

Take from the oven, and set aside to rest for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle over the extra mint and coriander leaves, and the pomegranate seeds if you have them. Serve with the Pomegranate Yoghurt.

Preferably serve your delicious meatloaf warm, with the pomegranate yoghurt on the side. However, this meatloaf is also delicious eaten cold. I know you will love this dish.

Warm wishes

Pauline