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Today I’m bringing you the latest in my quest to transform all my favorite family recipes into keto-friendly foods I can enjoy whenever! This is probably my all-time favorite recipe from my childhood, and now you can also enjoy this Keto BBQ Meatloaf even as you live your low carb life!
Keto BBQ Meatloaf
Every year for my birthday growing up, I asked my mom to make BBQ meatloaf for my birthday dinner. That’s how much I love this recipe. So I started tinkering around with low carb ingredients in a quest to get it right.
The original recipe, which I shared on here eons ago (forgive the truly horrendous photos!) uses crackers in the meat mixture and has a staggering amount of sugar in the sauce. No wonder I loved it as a kid!
Surprisingly, the sauce was actually the easiest part to get right! I swapped out regular ketchup for my favorite unsweetened version
and used my sweetener blend instead of sugar. Overall, the sauce is a bit less sweet than the original to account for my decreased sweet tooth on keto, but you can easily sweeten it to your taste without adding any carbs.
Meatloaf
The difficult part was actually getting the texture of the meat mixture right. My first few attempts just didn’t have the tenderness of the original recipe. I think I made this recipe once a week for several weeks until I got it where I wanted it. Luckily, my family didn’t complain.
In the end, I found a mixture of eggs, almond flour
, flax meal
, and a little almond milk to work really successfully to mimic the original.
Sauce
Just like in the original, we layer half the meat mixture with shredded mozzarella cheese, and partway through cooking we spoon on some of the barbecue sauce.
I use these loaf pans
and absolutely swear by them. Nothing (really really nothing!) ever sticks in them. Ever.
I find the low-carb version bakes slightly more quickly than the original, so watch it carefully.
Serve with the rest of the sauce and your favorite low carb veggie and you have yourself a pretty fine keto dinner, my friends.
A quick note about ingredients: This recipe still uses Worcestershire sauce to get the right flavor, but Worcestershire sauce still contains sugar and the carbs add up. 1/8 of this meatloaf has 5.4 net carbs, many of which come from the Worcestershire sauce. If you want to decrease the carbs in this recipe, consider making your own low-carb Worcestershire sauce.
Keto BBQ Meatloaf
Ingredients
Meatloaf
- 1 lb (.45 kilo) ground beef (85% or leaner works best)
- 1/2 cup (50 g) almond flour
- 1/4 (35 g) cup flax meal (ground flax seeds)
- 2 eggs
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) almond or cashew milk
- 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce (see note)
- 3/4 cup (85 g) shredded mozzarella
Sauce
- 3/4 cup (180 mL) unsweetened ketchup
- 1/2 cup (80g) Low Carb Sweetener
- 3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp. molasses (optional, for flavor)
- 1/4 (60 mL) cup water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C)
- Mix all the ingredients for the meat mixture except the mozzarella. Spread half the meat mixture in a loaf pan. Layer with the shredded mozzarella, and then the rest of the meat mixture. Place in the oven.
- While the meatloaf is baking, place all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk, and allow to come to a boil. Remove from heat.
- After meatloaf has been baking for 30 minutes, remove from the oven and spoon an even layer over the top of the meatloaf and return to oven. Bake for an additional 35-45 minutes or until cooked through.
- Serve with remaining sauce.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1 sliceAmount Per Serving: Calories: 276Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 6.3gSodium: 336mgCarbohydrates: 7.9gNet Carbohydrates: 5.9gFiber: 1.9gSugar: 4.1gProtein: 16.1g
