Chef Tom Herndon – Tired of Mom’s Meatloaf? Try Tom’s Meatloaf!

American Comfort Food meets The Middle East

Ok, meatloaf is classic good-ol’-‘mericun comfort food. Like, really comforting. Like jammies, slippers, blankie, and a well-loved movie comforting. \Why the very name contains the word “loaf.”

Meatloaf can also be rather bo-ring. Like desert-is-a-beige-riot boring, or salt-free-chewy-sawdust boring.

I needed to stock the fridge for the week. I wanted something mashers-n-peas, with a big slab o’ meat comforting.

But I also wanted to turn up the volume on flavor. One of my top fave flavor profiles is Middle Eastern. Bold, earthy, tribal ingredients: warm spices like coriander, cumin and cinnamon; the tang of preserved lemons, olives, and feta; the spicy-hot of good harissa; pine nuts, pistachios, and pita bread. Yes?

Traditional Middle Eastern flavor profiles have been proven over centuries. In every mouthful you can taste the history.

So my little chef-mind started buzzing and I came up with this. I have a well-used, plain-Jane recipe that’s tasty enough, and I’ve cooked a hundred times. Something called Mama’s Meatloaf. So I slapped a Middle Eastern filter on my brain-pan and conjured up something that was even tastier. Still pushed all my comfort food buttons, but was not even close to boring. This one’s a keeper.

Try it. You might never return to your mom’s tried-and-true meatloaf again.