Havarti stuffed meatloaf minis with hidden veggies, and a fantastic sweet and spicy ketchup sauce!
You guys, I do not love meatloaf. But at the request of a reader I made some meatloaf minis a few years back. They were really yummy, and the sauce on them was insanely good. Insanely good! I have been trying to come up with some easy portable meals, you know…minivan meals, I can use for my kids on nights when we are busy and not home. Like when we have practice, or piano, or something.
Anyway, I got a hankering for that insanely good sauce the other day. I knew I could make the meatloaf in advance, and freeze it. And that because of the mini size it would be ideal for eating on the go. But I wanted to mix things up a bit, and since I am sort of on a cheese kick these days, I decided to stuff the meatloaf with some amazing Arla Dofino Havarti cheese. Can you blame me?
I love this cheese. It is creamy, flavorful, and melts well. The perfect way to stuff a mini meatloaf. But that wasn’t quite enough. A while back I was reading my good friend Jen’s blog Carlsbad Cravings, and she had some meatloaf muffins, and you guys, she totally added veggies to the hamburger, which is awesome. You know my son is a picky eater, and getting enough vegetables into his diet is a challenge. I loved the idea of mincing vegetables in a food processor, and then adding them into the meat. They are not too obvious, and add some health to the tasty little cups of meatloaf. So I went with it!
I used cauliflower because it has such a mild flavor, and celery and carrots because that is what I had on hand. Delicious, delicious, delicious. For real though. Then to add some extra flavor I added in some french fried onions. I could seriously eat french fried onions as chips, so I knew I would love them in these mini meatloafs. And they definitely added a great flavor. I did not have enough on hand to get the consistency of the meatloaf right, so I added in some cheese crackers too. I don’t love bread crumbs in meatloaf, and these kind of acted like the breadcrumbs while adding extra flavor. Throw in some spices, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce, an egg to be a binder, and it was a win!
Anyway, I mixed all the ingredients up. And then portioned out each one and stuffed it with cheese! Because really, who doesn’t love cheese? And this creamy havarti was the perfect flavor compliment to the meatloaf.
Add the cheese. All the cheese. Then bake it. Bake it. Bake it! Look at the amazing texture in these meatloaf minis. And that cheese…le sigh! I just love having melty strings of cheese criss-crossing through the muffin cup of deliciousness!
I mean, just look at that beautiful veggie and cheese stuffed meatloaf mini. But don’t let yourself be satisfied just yet. There is a whole other level of amazing-ness just waiting to be had with these cheese stuffed meatloaf minis.
This insanely good sauce. Let’s top these beauties and add a sweet and ever so slightly spicy (adjust to your heat preference) ketchup based sauce that really takes these little beauties to a whole new level.
Tell me you are hungry! Portable, flavor packed, and incredibly delicious, with some hidden health benefits! You need it.
Look how fabulous these cheese stuffed meatloaf muffins are. I won’t even tell you how many I ate.
So now that you know how crazy good these little meatloaf minis are, let’s get to the actual recipe you can get on your way to a minivan meal.
Havarti Stuffed Meatloaf Minis
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
- 8 baby carrots
- 1/2 a head cauliflower
- 3 celery sticks
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup French fried onions
- 1 cup cheese crackers
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup minced garlic
- 1 tsp hot sauce
- 6 ounces Arla Dofino Havarti cheese
Sauce
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp Harissa
- 1/2 tsp horseradish
- 1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees
- Line a muffin tin with foil cupcake wrappers, or spray tin with non-stick cooking spray
- Put vegetables (carrots, celery, cauliflower) in a food processor and pulse until minced well.
- Put vegetables in a bowl with the ground beef and minced garlic
- Put french fried onions and cheese crackers in a food processor, and pulse
- Put the cracker mixture into the bowl with the veggies and ground beef. Add in Worcestershire sauce, egg, and salt and hot sauce.
- Mix well.
- Cut Arla Dofino cheese into chunks
- Using a 1/3 cup measurer, measure out 1/3 cup, and then form the meat around the cheese.
- Put in foil liner. You should get between 15-18 mini meatloaf
- Bake at 450 for 20-24 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F.
- While meatloaf is baking, mix together sauce ingredients and heat in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat, stir and set aside.
- When meatloaf minis are cooked through, remove from oven, and top with sauce.
- Serve!
Nutrition
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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Jaybe says
These look delicious! Would appreciate clarification as to when you add in the 1/4 c. minced garlic and the 1 teaspoon hot sauce when making the meatloaf. Thanks so much!
Bilbo Baggins says
Thanks for a wonderful recipe. My family loved every bite.