I was overwhelmed with a mysterious urge to make meat loaf. No rhyme or reason, but meatloaf had to be made!! And not just any meatloaf but BACON wrapped meat loaf. So I created this low carb meat loaf recipe!
My first thought was – what to substitute for the bread crumbs to keep it low carb? Easy – riced cauliflower!
My second thought was – let’s bacon wrap this baby!
My third thought was – bacon makes everything better, but cheese makes everything best! So I decided a firm cheese that wouldn’t dissolve during cooking, like feta, would be perfect.
The result? My bacon wrapped meatloaf-baby. The extra kicker? You only use about a cup of cauliflower so there is plenty left to turn into cauliflower mashed “potatoes” to serve with the meat loaf.
Meat loaf and mashed cauliflower = a match made in heaven.
Not a great shot but you can see the feta cheese inside the meatloaf. You can’t even detect the cauliflower.
Low Carb Meat Loaf
Ingredients
- 1 pound 85% Ground Meat or fattier
- 0.5 pounds Sweet Italian Sausage not in casing
- 1 Onion
- 3 cloves Garlic
- Olive Oil
- 0.25 cups Feta Cheese Cut Into Cubes
- 2 Eggs
- 1 cup Finely Riced Cauliflower ~1/4 head cauliflower
- 3 tablespoons Thyme
- 1 tablespoon Hot Sauce i used valentino's hot sauce
- Salt And Pepper
Instructions
- Sautee onion and garlic in olive oil until transparent, let cool.
- While sauteing, line a baking sheet with tinfoil. Then line a cooling rack with tinfoil and poke holes in it with a knife. Place cooling rack on top of baking sheet (which will catch the drippings).
- Mix meats, onion, garlic, eggs, cauliflower, thyme and hot sauce with your hands. Squish and smooch, people!
- Add in the feta cheese and generously salt and pepper, squish and smoosh some more.
- Shape mixture into a loaf and transfer onto the tinfoil lined cooling rack. You may need to reshape it back into a loafy shape.
- Line bacon horizontally across the loaf and tuck the edges under the loaf, as the bacon will curl up while cooking.
- Take second half of bacon and weave it through the first batch (you may need to re tuck some edges).
- Bake for at least an hour (mine took 1:15) or until meat thermometer reads 160. Let cool for about 10 - 20 minutes before serving.
- Use this time while baking to make your caulimash and other sides. I used thyme in this batch to complement the meat loaf.
- Cut along the horizontal bacon per piece.
Lovely looking bacon wrapped meat loaf!!
Voila! A giant, leftover-worthy low carb meat loaf recipe ready to feed an army. 🙂
Only 2 net carbs per serving
My boy cat looking pretty chubby but soo cute.
Gun says
Didn’t you mean 3 cloves of garlic?
Sparky says
Doh! Good catch, thank you! Just updated it to say ‘cloves’. Not sure what I was thinking when I wrote ‘heads’. Brain fart LOL
Annick says
This recipe makes such a lovely meatloaf. However I followed the recipe and it came out very dry. I wonder if maybe I should try to mix ground beef and ground pork next time….do you think it would come out less dry?…I would love to make this my go to recipe, thanks for posting it for us to enjoy,
Sparky says
Hi Annick,
I’m surprised it came out dry, between the cauliflower and bacon. What percentage fat did you use for the ground beef?
I think pork, as a higher fat meat, could definitely make it more juicy. Please let me know!!
-Sarah
Annick says
Hello Sarah. I had to try this meatloaf again and you were right….a fattier cut of ground beef did the trick. Also I didn’t have any sausage on hand so I substituted it for half a pound of ground pork…….Delicious. Very tasty with just the right amount of herbs and seasoning. Thank you very much for taking the time and for posting this recipe. Annick