For the juiciest turkey meatloaf, add grated zucchini to it. This meatloaf is easy to whip up – mix all the ingredients, shape it into a loaf, and bake!
Turkey Meatloaf with Zucchini
Here’s an idea: Instead of trying to get your family to eat healthier all the time, add healthy ingredients to the foods they already love. I had a ton of zucchini from my garden I needed to use up, so I mixed some grated zucchini into my turkey meatloaf recipe. The meatloaf came out so moist and flavorful. I’ve been adding zucchini to ground meat for years – try my Petite BBQ Bacon Turkey Loaves and Greek Feta-Zucchini Turkey Burgers for more recipes. And if you need more ideas for ground turkey, you can see all my ground turkey recipes here.
Turkey Meatloaf Ingredients
- Sauce: Mix a quarter cup of ketchup with the other ingredients and combine two tablespoons with Worcestershire to coat the top before baking.
- Meat: Select 93% lean ground turkey or sub lean ground beef or chicken.
- Onion: For my original turkey meatloaf recipe, you sauté fresh onion, but I skipped that step and used dried onion flakes instead. No need to dirty another pan!
- Zucchini: Zucchini is the key ingredient for juicy meatloaf. Grate enough to get three-quarters of a cup, and then wrap it in a towel and squeeze out the liquid.
- Binders: Egg and oats or breadcrumbs bind the meat together to keep turkey meatloaf from falling apart. If you don’t have oats you can use seasoned or regular breadcrumbs or panko. And if you want to make a gluten-free meatloaf, use gluten- free oats or breadcrumbs.
- Seasonings: Season the meatloaf with marjoram and kosher salt. If you need to substitute the marjoram, swap it with dried thyme.
How Long to Cook Turkey Meatloaf with Zucchini
Shape the turkey zucchini meatloaf into a loaf on a baking sheet and bake it uncovered for 55 to 60 minutes. You can also bake it in a loaf pan. Once it’s done, let it rest for five minutes before slicing. Resting it will keep it from falling apart.
How to Freeze Turkey Meatloaf
I always love to double meatloaf recipes so I have one to eat and one to freeze. Turkey meatloaf with zucchini lasts in the fridge for three or four days, and you can freeze it whole or sliced. Slicing it is nice in case you only need a serving or two at a time. Wrap the slices individually in foil and freeze in a zip-locked bag. To reheat, thaw it overnight and reheat it in the microwave.
What to Serve with Turkey Meatloaf
Serve this healthy turkey zucchini meatloaf with buttermilk mashed potatoes, rice pilaf, or smashed sweet potatoes. For some green veggies, try roasted parmesan green beans, garlic broccolini, or a side salad.
More Meatloaf Recipes You’ll Love:
- Enchilada Meatloaf
- Meatloaf and Brown Gravy
- Sheet Pan Turkey Meatloaf and Broccoli
- Campfire Dinner Meatloaf Foil Packets
- Cheese-Stuffed Turkey Meatloaf
Turkey Meatloaf with Zucchini
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup grated zucchini, squeezed dry after
- 6 tablespoons ketchup, divided
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 lb ground turkey, 93% lean
- 2 tablespoons dried onion flakes
- 1/3 cup quick oats, or seasoned breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon marjoram
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In a small bowl combine 2 tablespoons of the ketchup with Worcestershire sauce.
- In a medium bowl combine the turkey, zucchini, dried onion, oats or breadcrumbs, egg, 1/4 cup ketchup, salt and marjoram.
- Shape into a loaf and place on a baking sheet. Spoon sauce on top.
- Bake uncovered for 55-60 minutes, remove from oven and let it sit for 5 minutes before slicing.
I stumbled across this recipe and I’m so glad I did! Very easy, flavourful and moist. I sautéed some garlic and onion, and I added dried basil and oregano in lieu of marjoram. I cooked it in my loaf pan and it was fully cooked at 55 minutes. I served with roasted Brussel sprouts and fingerling potatoes from the garden.
DELISH!
We have added this to our food prep, excellent for lunch with a salad !
GREAT!!
can we sub onion powder for onion flakes? How much?
Hubby was skeptical at first, but loved this. I added a couple tablespoons of sautéed mushrooms, diced onion, ham and spinach that I had actually prepped for something else. This is a keeper!
Do you think it would hold together ok without the egg? My girls are allergic to eggs but I think they would love a meatloaf (especially if I can hide some zucchini in it!)
I would try a flax egg.
This looks great! I’m really watching my points, so I’m planning on using 99% ground turkey as it drops it to 2 points instead of 7 with the 93%. Looking forward to trying this!
If k was to meal prep this, would you freeze before or after cooking?
I’ve made this three times and it’s fantastic.. It is a little hard to turn the mashed raw meat into a “loaf” before cooking.. It takes a while in the oven, last time I turned the oven off at ten minutes left, then quick turn on the broiler once I’m about to serve to heat up and further caramelize the top and it comes out perfect. My fav pet is the ketchup-Worcestershire sauce topping
This is the best meatloaf I ever made and I’ve made many. I think the zucchini makes it moist and tahe combination of ketchup and worchestershire sauce give it the zing. I made little meatballs with part of it. It is a fantastic meatloaf. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very good, will become a new staple. Zucchini keeps it moist and flavorful. I used Italian seasoning in place of Marjoram and it came out great.
Quite good–the zucchini keeps it from drying out. I used regular old-fashioned outs since I didn’t have quick oats and it turned out great. This one’ll be on our menu all through zucchini season!
I made this and had it every night last week! I normally can’t do that because I lose interest after two nights. I just started to look forward to this every night! I highly recommend and I’ll make it again for sure!
This is a winner! My husband loved it and so did I. I am gluten free so we used oats. I happen to also be onion-sensitive so I subbed freeze dried chopped scallions and it was PERFECTION. I already have it scheduled for our rotation next week, and plan to make an extra freezer meatloaf for when my school year begins. Thank you!
I made this last night for dinnerl and, it was so good! I cooked in a loaf pan and served with smashed baby potatoes. I will make this again!
We are very sodium conscious, so as written, this recipe was too high in sodium for us. I switched out the ketchup for a no sodium version, used reduced sodium Worcestershire and cut the salt to 1/2 tsp. If I calculated correctly, this took the sodium content to just over 300 mg per serving. I also added sauteed onions to the meatloaf in place of dried onion. It was moist and delicious even with the sodium adjustments. Next tome, I’ll make two and freeze one for later.
This was delicious. It was so moist and very easy to make. I will definitely be making it again.
I knew this would be good, and with lots of zucchini from the garden, I made two! One for now and one to freeze. It may get eaten before it sees the freezer. I used glass loaf pans. Great meatloaf! Really moist. Hubby loved it too.
So glad you liked it!
I have lamb mince out would this recipe work
Best meatloaf I’ve ever had. Seriously so delicious and moist!!
Thanks Erin!
I loved this Turkey Meatloaf as it came together so quickly with ingredients I already had on hand! The meatloaf was moist and light. I’ll definitely be making this again.