Gastography

This is one of those meals where everything went wrong – I consciously decided to swap the main meat, the grocery was out of chorizo, I didn’t have as much adobo sauce and almond flour as I thought – and yet it all came together just fine into a damn tasty little dish, and not at all as meat clogged as I had thought it would be. I was expecting heavy, greasy, and to finish feeling like I’m on meat overload – happily, that was not the case here.

Mini Turkey & Sausage Spicy Meatloaves with Seared Tomato Relish

Adapted from Chorizo Mini Meatloaves with Chipotle, Tomato Relish by Food Renegade

1 lb. ground turkey
1 lb. fresh sausage (the original recipe called for chorizo; I used some sort of spicy ‘mystery sausage’ from the freezer and it turned out great)
1 Tbsp. adobo sauce (from a can of chipotles – read your label!)
2 eggs
Scant 2 Tbsp. almond flour (you can omit this alltogether and things will work out just fine – the meat mix will be a little wet but all will be well. If too-wet meat freaks you out, just halve or omit the egg – ground meat in a muffin tin is very forgiving)
1 large onion
5 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp. coconut oil
2 c. cherry tomatoes
1 tsp. adobo sauce + sriracha or more adobo if you have it and you need it for spice
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 c. cilantro
juice of 1 lime (maybe more)
extra lime juice + 1/4 an avocado per person for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add to a medium pan with the coconut oil and sautee until translucent and beginning to brown around the edges.

Add half the onions & garlic to a large bowl and half to the bowl of your food processor.

To the bowl (not food processor), add the ground meat + sausage slipped of its casings + egg + flour + 1 Tbsp. adobo and mix by hand until incorporated.

If you’re a normal adult human and have “regular” muffin tins, you will need 2 for this recipe. If you’re like me and only have 1 tin of mini muffin cups and a couple novelty tins for making holiday cakes, muddle through as you can. Whatever kind of loaf you’re making, fill your cups, making sure not to fill each cup up more than 3/4 of the way through or you will have a hot mess on your hands. A hot mess and overflowing grease. Yum. I made 1 tin of mini muffins + 1 tin of snowman/mitten muffins + 3 burger sized patties fried on the stovetop.

Pop those babies into the oven and set the timer for 25 minutes.

While the loaves/muffins/snowmen heads are baking, toss the tomatoes into the pan you were using for the onions and let cook until blackened in spots and beginning to pop open. Add to the food processor, along with the remaining adobo, olive oil, lime juice, and 2 big pinches of salt. Process. Taste for seasoning; adjust heat/acid/salt if necessary. At this point, if your salsa is too wet (mine was), toss back into the pan and cook some of that liquid off. Make sure to re-taste for seasoning. Add the cilantro and set aside.

When your timer goes off, check the meatloaves. You’re looking for rendered fat on the top (you won’t have a whole heck of a lot if you’re working with turkey), and done looking bottoms. If you are using metal pans, you may have a nice crust. Silicone tins aren’t really into all that mess. If things look good, you’re in the clear. I was slightly worried about doneness (and was secretly hoping for a nice crust), so I jacked the heat to 400 and blasted the loaves for an additional 5 minutes.

Serve over a bed of sliced avocado, topped with the relish and a squirt of fresh lime juice.

Makes a bunch – I’m getting 4-6 servings (3 mini muffins, 2 snow men/mittens, or 1.5 burger patties per serving). Your mileage may vary.