Scarborough Fair Meatloaf

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

With apologies to Simon and Garfunkel and its possible 1670 origins, it was this ballad that came to mind as I was making this meatloaf.

Scarborough Fair Meatloaf

2 stalks celery, chopped
One onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
One block of firm tofu, frozen and thawed, drained and crumbled
1/4 c. walnuts, chopped
12 oz. vegetarian meat crumbles
1-1/4 c. quick cooking oats
3 T. Braggs Aminos
2 T. ketchup
1 T. Dijon mustard
2 t. parsley
1/2 t. each - sage, rosemary and thyme

Saute the celery, onion and garlic until soft. In a large bowl, add the sauteed vegetables and remaining ingredients. Mix well.

Here's where I confess my sins.

The original recipe said to spray a loaf pan, but this made more than my loaf pan would hold, so I sprayed a casserole dish instead. Dumped it all into the dish,  covered it with a coating of ketchup and baked at 375 for one hour.

Came out tasty, but definitely not a loaf. More of a hash. We dished it on top of the mashed potatoes and gobbled it up. Not sure how to make this more loafy - my son suggested going ahead with the loaf pan and maybe pressing it down a bit to compact it. Not sure if that would work, but we liked it well enough for me to give that a go. If anyone has a suggestion, or has tried the packing technique and it works, let me know, would you?

My non-vegan cousin teased me about using the term *meat* in the recipe, but another friend pointed out that the word *meat* is defined as the the edible part of something as distinguished from its covering (as a husk or shell), so can be used to describe both plant and flesh. So there!

The word meat comes from the Old English word mete, which referred to food in general. The term is related to mad in Danish, mat in Swedish and Norwegian, and matur in Icelandic, which also mean 'food'. The word "mete" also exists in Old Frisian (and to a lesser extent, modern West Frisian ) to denote important food, differentiating it from "swiets" (sweets) and "dierfied" (animal feed).