{Middle Eastern Meatloaf}

My inner bogan loves meatloaf, but the hipster in me needs it to be a bit jazzed up, tick tick. Oh and it needs to taste good and to take a nice photo so I can put it up here tick tick. This recipe is for two which means one is smugly sitting in the freezer waiting to be popped into the oven at a moments notice, major tick AND you don't even have to get your loaf tin dirty you just shape it on baking paper and its totes rustic and there's no washing up tickety tick.

I am pretty stoked with this meatloaf and I just boiled the kettle and made some cous cous and a wee parsley salad to go along with it, easy. The one in my freezer is destined for a pot luck lunch we have coming up because everyone's got a little bit of meatloaf lovin inner bogan in them don't you reckon?

...the meatloaf
50 ml olive oil
3 large onions, diced
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1/2 tin diced tomatoes (or 2 large chopped tomatoes)
3 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup diced dates (or sultanas)
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cup mint, finely shredded
1 kg lamb mince
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs, lightly packed (or panko)
2 eggs, lightly beaten

...the crunchy top
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp lemon juice
80g slithered almonds or pinenuts

Heat oil in a large fry pan and cook onion, garlic and ginger until soft and pale gold. Add in the tomatoes, salt, spices, dates, tomato paste, honey and vinegar and increase heat and cook until it thickens, then take it off the heat and let it cool completely.

Once cool add it to all the remaining meatloaf ingredients and mix well using your hands, shape into two loaves on a shallow tray lined with baking paper, and bake at 180 for an hour.

Remove from the oven and press the nuts into the top, heat the honey and lemon together and pour over the meatloaves, then bake for a further 10-15 minutes until the nuts are golden.

Cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing.