It is week three of the Great Gluten-Free Campout! I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far! From me, you’ve seen an advanced and beginner’s version of campout peach pie, and an amazingly easy loaded baked potato salad with a secret ingredient that might just blow your mind. Today, you get to see my main dish.
I hope you’ve also been visiting my partners in crime in this series to view their yummy creations.
Today’s recipe lineup is exciting!
Breakfast: Campfire Biscuits and Gravy from Better Batter
Side: List of Unrefrigerated Snacks from Angela’s Kitchen
On the Fire (Main): Meatloaf from me!
Dessert: Stuffed Bananas from Gluten Freedom and Loving It
Rick’s Cowboy Meatloaf
Meatloaf in a Dutch oven is a good thing. Unlike the time you decided to fend off mosquitoes with sheer will power, you will not regret this camping choice.
Start by cubing four pieces of gluten-free bread. Any gluten-free bread will do.
You can also use breadcrumbs, but I prefer bread.
Next, if you’re using bread, soak it in about half a cup of milk. After a few minutes, it’ll be goopy and slop-like. That’s a good thing. Skip this step if you’re using breadcrumbs.
While the milk and bread are doing their thang, do your thang. Chop and dice all the wonderful veggies. Start by dicing the garlic.
And chopping two big, juicy tomatoes with their seeds. Summer tomatoes and camping – it’s a match made in heaven. Can I get an amen?
And rough choping some red onions. When I say “rough chop,” I mean don’t worry about the pieces being super uniform or super small. They’ll cook down in the meatloaf and will provide a nice crunch and subtle flavor. This is a rustic dish, so we can be rustic.
Sometimes I forget to buy cilantro for dishes, and I think, “Oh, it’s just cilantro. Not a big deal.”
Now is not that moment. Cilantro is the star of this dish. It is mucho importante. You simply must add cilantro. Lots of it.
You see, this meatloaf doesn’t have a topping. Most toppings create flavor by playing harsh mustard, tangy ketchup and sweet sugar together. This meatloaf achieves that balance of flavors by pairing lots of cilantro with brown sugar. It is amazing.
Oops – Rick and I both forgot to bring a mixing bowl. This is a the dishwashing tub (thoroughly cleaned before and after this use).
Mix the meat and veggies, a few eggs, sugar and and soaked bread with two cups of sharp grated cheddar. Add a generous amount of Worcestershire sauce.
And mix.
Place it in a foil-lined Dutch oven.
Now it’ll cook in the Dutch oven with about 20 coals on top and eight on bottom, which will achieve an internal oven temperature of about 400 degrees. Replace some of the top coals halfway through cooking.
And here is the result.
Sorry for the bright and blurry picture. It was so bright when I took this that I couldn’t really see anything.
We were really camping outside for this recipe. It is legit. And sometimes there are super bright pictures to prove it.
Serve hot with your favorite camping sides!
- 1.5 c. breadcrumbs - OR - 4 slices g.f. bread soaked in about 1/2 c. milk
- 4 cloves garlic, diced
- 2 large fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 2 small or one large red onion
- 1/2 c. cilantro, chopped - measured after it's chopped
- 2 lbs lean ground beef
- 1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 c. brown sugar
- 2 c. sharp cheddar, grated
- 3 eggs
- Tear apart bread and soak in milk.
- Chop vegetables.
- Mix all the ingredients together and place in a foil-lined Dutch oven.
- Cook on 400 for 1.5 hours.
- In a Dutch oven, 400 degrees is achieved by placing 20 coals on lid of the oven and 8 on bottom. Replace about half the top coals after an hour.
