Veggie-Loaded Mini Meatloaves
Flavorful, juicy and full of veggies, these mini meatloaves are a great twist on a classic family dinner recipe. Easy to make, perfectly portioned out, and they cook up faster than traditional meatloaf recipes. Gluten free.
I have found (yet another) way to use my muffin tin for something other than muffins. Veggie-Loaded Mini Meatloaves! Truth be told, this miniature meatloaf recipe came about half by accident and half by necessity. Once a year, I travel out of town for a few days sans my family for an educational convention (NAEYC for those of you deep in the early childhood education world like myself). My husband is a wonderful cook, but I also know how crazy life as a lone parent for a few days can be. So I like to leave him prepared with a few easy to heat up meals! Starting with meatloaf.
As I was throwing together the ingredients, I eyeballed my muffin tin on the drying rack. I remembered seeing a recipe many moons ago on Pinterest for meatloaves in a muffin tin. Genius! They would cook up quickly, be easy to store AND perfect for reheating after a busy day.
But, because I am me….I couldn’t help but notice that meatloaf could be the perfect place to add some bonus veggies in at dinner time! A little chopping, grating and mixing later…and these Veggie-Loaded Mini Meatloaves were made and now a delicious part of our dinner rotation.
Veggie-Loaded Mini Meatloaves
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef, pork, chicken, or turkey
- 1 teaspoon salt
- black pepper to taste
- 2 large eggs
- 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 cups finely chopped mushrooms , any kind that you prefer
- 1/2 cup finely chopped or grated carrot
- 2 cups loosely packed spinach, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- oil for greasing
Equipment
- Muffin tin
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350℉ and grease a muffin tin with a little oil to prevent sticking.
- In a large bowl combine all of the ingredients. Using freshly washed hands or a large spoon, mix the ingredients until everything is blended together evenly.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until meat is cooked. The meatloaves will release some water as they cook. This is normal.
- Enjoy warm with rice, potatoes, salad or a side of roasted veggies.
- Let cool and store leftovers in your fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for a month.
Notes
Time saving hack!
If you have a food processor, use the “S” blade to help finely chop the veggies in this mini meatloaf recipe. It’ll help make this dinner recipe even easier and quick to come together!
Suggested Adaptations
- Switch out the veggies. Use what you have on hand! I love to toss in finely chopped broccoli or cauliflower and even some bell pepper. This recipe is great for using up whatever veggie odds and ends you need to put to use!
- Use whatever ground meat you prefer. I used ground beef, but this meatloaf recipe works beautifully with ground pork, chicken or turkey, too!
- Bake it as a regular meatloaf in a loaf pan at the the same temp for about an hour or until it is cooked through.
- Top with some cheese before baking…because yum!
I am going to try this. It looks like it cooks quicker than reg meatloaf too ( i always underestimate how long it takes to cook) and easy to freeze and then defrost in portions.
This recipe is fabulous! The whole family loved them. I am making again, this time using zucchini instead of spinach (out of it). Using what I have. Hoping it turns out just as good. Thank you!
So glad you loved them, Donna! I might suggest grating the zucchini and squeezing out some of it’s moisture before adding it to the meatloaf. I find zucchini has a lot more water than spinach
These look seriously amazing! Can’t wait to try 🙂
Will it still make minus the mushrooms?
Yes! Go ahead and leave them out!
Do you think subbing asparagus for the carrots will work? I’m doing a couple weeks of low carb. Thanks! These look great!
Can I make this recipe in a bread loaf tin?
I have made this recipe 3 times now, and it has turned out excellent every time. I have learned to put a baking sheet/piece of tinfoil under my pan as to catch any grease drips that may occur. The "hardest" part about the recipe is chopping up the mushrooms. My "no meatloaf" husband now eats meatloaf!
I love this recipe somehow miraculously found in January 2018. I double the recipe, freeze and use at my leisure. ALSO found it’s great for potlucks. People LOVE them. Don’t use cupcake papers…boo… they stick.
Veggie chopping tip! I use my 4c food processor to chop. I would use a larger model, if I owned one. Thank you for sharing this recipe idea AND the best veggie loaded recipe out there.
What can I use to substitute eggs? Imrryinf a meal plan and can only have egg whites.
Egg whites should work fine!
Same here! So glad you enjoy them as much as we do!
I made these recently with ground turkey and kale..Oh my so so good! My girls 10,9,6,2 devoured them and my husband enjoyed some for dinnerand breakfast the next day!
Wow! That is so awesome! I’m so glad your crew enjoyed them as much as we do!
Thoughts on using flax eggs or egg replacer? We have an egg white allergy.
I haven’t tried but I bet flax or chia “eggs” would work!
Such a great idea to make them Mini! My daughter loves them and they will be great for her lunchbox!
Yes! I love that they are the perfect size for packing!
Just >my< preference, tried 1 lb of beef and 1lb Italian sausage. I know it affects nutrition values, but for me, it's worth it.
Thats sounds like a delicious adaptation!
What would be a good veggie replacement for mushrooms? I am excited to make this tonight for dinner!
You could totally skip the mushrooms all together!
I used Zucchini instead of mushrooms. It’s my go to veggie whenever it says to add mushrooms! Yum!
I love this recipe! Been making this for a while now. Just wondering whether you cook these in batches or do you put 2 muffin pans in the oven at the same time? I’ve always done it in 2 batches but I want to try cooking them at the same time..
I always do them all at the same time!
I’ve made this recipe both exactly as is and with modifications based on whatever veggies I had in the fridge that needed using. This is a go to for me as I can hide veggies my family otherwise wouldn’t eat. We’ve also used this recipe for burgers in summer and they are so good!
I’m so glad you love these as much as we do, Kim! Love the idea of using it as a burger! I need to do that this summer!
These are delicious!! Very easy to make and my family loved them, including my 13 year old. Thank you for a great recipe – we’ll be adding these to our rotation!
So glad you enjoyed them as much as we do!
These look great – do you know what the measurement would be with frozen spinach? Would it need to be wrung out?
I would probably do a 1/2 cup defrosted + drained spinach!
Talk about a great way to use veggies! I threw in carrots, broccoli, onion, spinach, peppers. I should have chopped the onions smaller but that’s on me. My family was a big fan. I love that it’s so much faster to cook than traditional meatloaf.
Sammmmee! I almost always make meatloaf in a muffin for its time saving ways. And I am so glad you all enjoyed this veggie-loaded version on the classic.
Super good and easy!!
So glad yu loved these as much as we do!
Love the easiness of this recipe. However the amount of veggies it calls for is high. It ended up being veggie cups with a bit of turkey vs the other way around. Next time I’d almost cut the veggies in half.
I tried to cut the recipe in half… came out of the oven after 25 min and everyone has fallen apart! They are not bound together whatsoever…
Oh no! That is surprising since they have eggs in them exactly for this reason! Did you make any other changes to the recipe other than halving it?
This is DELICIOUS. Even my uber picky 19 month old ate it up! For reference, he only likes yogurt, oatmeal, crackers, granola bars, and bananas. And he loved this!! Thank you for helping me find a healthy recipe that he would love!!
Music to my ears, Lindsey! That is so magical. My own daughter becoming a selective toddler was my inspo for veggie-loading and it always warms my heart to hear that my recipes are helping other parent feed and fuel their kiddos through a tricky season!
I made a 1/2 batch of these tonight in mini muffin tins and they were great! I used zucchini, carrots, fresh basil and onion with about 1/8 of a cup of panko to keep them together. I paired them with gnocchi, marinara sauce and air fried eggplant. It got rave reviews from all of us. Thanks as always for your reliable recipes! As a mom, it means the world to have a place to come to when I’m trying to decide what to make.
Erin, that means so much to hear! I’m so glad you loved these (of course!) but I’m honored to be a resource for you when it comes to feeding your family!
These are really tastey! I used my food processor which saved time but may have chopped things a bit too small. I used the 1/4 c measure and it made 20 muffins. They released a ton and liquid and were kinda soggy and floating in the cups. Not super appetizing, but they taste good so maybe you just have to find the right size for the chopped veg.
So glad you enjoyed the flavor! 💚 Veggies definitely release a lot of water as they cook…and the ground meat in meatloaf naturally does too. I usually see some moisture in the pan, but I wonder if chopping them super fine might have packed in more veggies than I used, which could add to it. Honestly, a good problem to have since they still tasted great 😉 but I totally get that floating meatloaves don’t exactly scream ‘yum’ at first glance!
Made these for our almost 9 month old and she LOVES them! The only thing that I didn’t love (but she didn’t care about at this point with her age) is the sides of the meatloafs came out kind of slimy feeling. Any ideas on how to fix this for the future? I used our silicone muffin pan and sprayed it with a non stick butter spray prior to filling.
So happy to hear your little one loved them! I’m guessing “slimy” sides are most likely from the silicone pan. The silicone doesn’t conduct heat the same as metal does and don’t brown the meat the way metal does.
How could I make this egg free for my sensitive little?
You could replace the eggs with flax eggs! I find they work beautifully in meatloaves as a binder https://thenaturalnurturer.com/how-to-make-a-flax-egg/