Healthy turkey meatloaf stuffed with feta cheese and spinach and drizzled with a tangy cucumber dill sauce. It’s a delicious keto meal the whole family will love. And it’s remarkably easy to make. A nice light comfort food meal.
Okay, you caught me. This turkey meatloaf recipe is not a new one. It’s been on my blog since its nascent stages, way back in 2010. But it’s such a good healthy turkey meatloaf, I decided it needed a shiny new update.
It’s easy and flavorful, and much lighter than traditional beef based meatloaf recipes. So while you may not think of making meatloaf in May or June, I highly recommend this one at any time of year.
Bonus points that it’s stuffed with delicious feta cheese. We’re a family of feta lovers over here. And the tzatziki sauce drizzled over is a nice touch too!
When I think of comfort food, I don’t necessarily think of meatloaf. The first thing that comes to mind is soup (or stew, or chili – anything of the broth-based variety). Next come casseroles and lasagnes. Meatloaf probably rates a distant third in my comfort food line-up.
And yet, I love meatloaf and every time I have it, I wonder why I don’t have it more often. It’s an easy meal to throw together, and it’s wonderfully versatile. You can spice it up with any number of flavourings, you can dress it up with toppings and sauces.
It gets a bit of a bad rap because everyone has had bad, dry, flavourless meatloaf at some point, but it shouldn’t be relegated to “only choke down under grandma’s watchful gaze” pile. It’s easy to make good meatloaf, and good meatloaf is delicious.
Turkey Meatloaf Inspiration
A few weeks ago, my husband and I were kicking around ideas for dinner. As he had just come home from our local wholesale club with a large tub of feta cheese and a big package of ground turkey, I was focussing on those two ingredients.
We wanted something easy to put together, and the idea of a greek-inspired meatloaf just came to me. My husband is a true lover of feta cheese, and his biggest concern was that the flavour of the cheese not get lost in the rest of the meatloaf.
So I decided to pack it into the middle of the loaf, so as to get a concentrated area of feta-ness. Spinach and feta go so well together, I thought I might mix frozen spinach right into the meatloaf base. And to top it all off, a wonderful garlicky tzatziki yogurt sauce.
How To Make Healthy Turkey Meatloaf
Try to use dark meat ground turkey: Turkey can tend to be kind of dry, especially when it bakes for a long time, as in a turkey meatloaf recipe. So if you can find dark meat ground turkey, try to use that. If not, perhaps add a tablespoon or two of healthy oil, like avocado oil.
Use a grain-free binder: Contrary to popular belief, meatloaf does not need bread crumbs. But a binder of some sort does help hold in the moisture. I used almond flour here but you could use crushed pork rinds if you prefer.
Get creative with flavor: Turkey meatloaf is like a blank slate, just waiting for you to put your creative touches on it. I went with a Greek theme here, with feta, spinach, marjoram, and tzatziki. But you could do taco seasoning, Cajun seasoning, jalapeños, Italian flavors, cheeseburger flavors, bacon, low carb ketchup. Really, whatever floats your boat.
Be prepared to get dirty: Mixing the meatloaf with your hands ensures that all of the ingredients are well combined.
Freeform it: Meatloaf doesn’t need a loaf pan and they often make it deeper and hard to cook through. I like to cover a pan with parchment and hand form the meat into a loaf.
Don’t overcook it: I can’t stress this strongly enough. Watch your meatloaf and check it regularly with an instant read thermometer. Turkey meatloaf needs to be fully cooked through, of course, but get it just to the right temperature and then stop. Unless you like eating dry sawdust!
Now have I convinced you that you need to make this keto turkey meatloaf recipe? Go on, heat to your kitchen and whip it up!
More Great Keto Meatloaf Recipes
Cheddar Jalapeno Skillet Meatloaf
Feta-Stuffed Turkey Meatloaf
Ingredients
Tzatziki Sauce:
- ½ cup full fat Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic finely minced
- ½ medium cucumber cut in half longwise and thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Meatloaf:
- 2 lbs ground turkey (dark meat if possible)
- 8 ounces frozen spinach thawed and squeezed out
- ½ cup almond flour
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup chopped onion
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- ¾ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
- For the sauce, mix all ingredients in a medium bowl and chill until serving.
- For the meatloaf, line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 325F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the turkey, spinach, almond flour, eggs, onion, salt, marjoram, and pepper. Mix with your hands until very well combined.
- Place half of the turkey mixture on the prepared baking sheet and shape into a flat rectangle, about 1 inch thick. Cover with ¾ cup of the feta cheese. Place remaining turkey mixture overtop of feta and shape the whole thing into a rough loaf. Sprinkle with the remaining feta, pressing lightly to adhere.
- Bake for 1 to 1 ¼ hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 160F on an instant read thermometer.
- Cut into slices and drizzle with tzatziki sauce, passing remaining sauce at the table.
Liz says
Anyone substituted fresh for frozen spinach?
Carolyn says
You should sauté it a bit first and then it should be fine.
Liz says
Made this and it was scrumptious. Wondering How to substitute fresh spinach rather than frozen.
Brittany Laird says
How much coconut flour should be used?
Carolyn says
I think they would freeze fine.
Gluten free says
This looks delicious! However it doesn’t say how much coconut flour to add in the recipe portion- instead it says corn meal. Are both needed?
Can you please clarify how much coconut flour to use per lb of meat? Thank you!!
Carolyn says
It’s not corn meal, it’s almond meal. It is correct in the recipe, I fixed the text.
Em says
I’ve made this twice now. Delicious every time. Thanks so much for a fresh and amazing take on meatloaf.
Robert J Karczewski says
Why don’t you have this recipe set up so that it has a print button that brings up just the recipe, instead of ending up with thirteen sheets of paper. Out of the thirteen, only one has the actual recipe and instructions for the preparation and baking. I just wasted twelve sheets of paper for nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Carolyn says
It’s called cut and paste. Also page preview. You can do either to make it so you just get the recipe. 🙂
Eric says
I made the meatloaf for dinner last night. It did not look as pretty as the one in the photo but it tasted really yummy. Oh yeah, I didn’t make the Greek sauce either.
Noelle says
Hi there,
I absolutely LOVE this recipe! My Only tweak on it is that I add some garlic to the onion and spinach mixture. I was wondering if you had a ballpark as to the nutritional content in this recipe? I tried guessing but I think I am WAY off! Thank you!
Carolyn says
Here we go: Carbohydrate: 13.71g
Total dietary fiber: 4.13g
Food energy: 399kcal
Saturated fatty acids: 8.49g
Protein: 38.00g
You can get more than 6 servings out of it to make it less carby, or cut back on the onion and spinach a bit.
Z Westgate says
Could you please tell me if this is 13.71g of carbohydrate per serving or for the whole loaf?
Carolyn says
Per serving.
Jess says
A tip for gluten-free: Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, according to their website and bottles, is indeed gluten free. I think they just didn’t used to bother labeling it thus, before heightened gluten awareness meant bigger business in that area.
Katie says
I made this tonight! I added more seasonings (cumin,parsley and thyme…its what I had on hand!) and honestly I could’ve used a lot more…I was just worried it would be too much. The texture is a lot like a crab cake vs a meatloaf. Not really a bad thing but something that my husband pointed out. The sauce was AWESOME….and I used sour cream instead of yogurt. That and the feta are my favorite parts! Have you ever tried using ground beef? I think next time I might!
Carolyn says
Ground beef would be great. Turkey has very little fat so keeping it moist is tougher than beef or pork.
Cindy White says
Doubled this for my whole crew for Sunday dinner, adding Greek seasoning as per your suggestion. I used half ground turkey and half ground pork loin. Oh. My. Gosh. Served it with cauliflower mash for us low carbers, mashed potatoes for the rest.
Carolyn says
Good stuff! I’ve found that even just a little marjoram helps the flavour!
anam says
Carolyn, thank you for creating such an amazing blog! I’ve gotten so many ideas already! As for the meatloaf…do you think that mozzarella cheese would work similarly? Thank you! Ana
Carolyn says
Sure, I think it would be great!
valerie says
I know what’s for dinner tonight! This looks great, love Greek food!
bridget {bake at 350} says
Whoa. This just looks and sounds AMAZING!!! I’m not a huge meatloaf fan (except cold on sandwiches)….I think because I’ve never had THIS meatloaf! Cannot wait to try it!
Ncole says
I’ll give credit where credit is due. .. I found my “go to greek seasoning mix”recipe from food.com, it is wonderful!!! and very perfect with the greek meatloaf. Again, the kids were in love with it- so that makes me double-in love 🙂
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoon paprika, hot or sweet
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Read more at: http://greek.food.com/recipe/gyros-spice-mix-with-a-kick-58843?oc=linkback
Ncole says
I made this a few weeks ago and am STILL thinking about (drooling over) how wonderful it was! … I was soooo super impressed with the dish that I had to let you know. I have a house full of boys (3 kids + hubby) and going “low carb” /grain-free has sometimes been a struggle for family dinners. This dish was a hit all around even with our additional male dinner guest. I will double the recipe next time for sure, only because the kids asked for leftovers for lunch, and were (not being sarcastic) *devastated* that there was none left 🙂 . One thing I changed (or added) was a homemade gyro seasoning that made and everything else followed to a “t”. thanks for a great recipe. It’s is a keeper for this lowcarb friend.
Carolyn says
Wonderful! What’s in your homemade gyro seasoning???
Ncole says
I’ll give credit where credit is due. .. I found my “go to greek seasoning mix”recipe from food.com, it is wonderful!!! and very perfect with the greek meatloaf. Again, the kids were in love with it- so that makes me double-in love 🙂
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 tablespoon paprika, hot or sweet
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Read more at: http://greek.food.com/recipe/gyros-spice-mix-with-a-kick-58843?oc=linkback
Eleni @ The Baboo says
Mmmmm I love meatloaf. Definitely going to make this!
Anonymous says
Just made this for the second time this month!!!! My picky husband requested it:-) I did add a tbsp of cumin and coriander to the mix and used fresh spinach. We put leftovers on pita bread with the sauce…so yummy!
Natalie says
This just came out of my oven right now, and I could barely contain my excitement!! This is so unbelievably good. It's definitely going to be a keeper in my kitchen! Thanks for a great recipe!
Anonymous says
We made this last night and it was nothing short of AMAZING….