Yes, it’s (still) the height of summer, and yes, I am posting about meatloaf. I love “comfort food” every day of the year, red hot blazing sun and 300% humidity be darned.
What I don’t need during the summer is my oven pumping away for an hour or more. These individual meatloaves take much less time to bake – only 20 minutes – and more surface area exposed to the heat means more crispy outside goodness on every little meatloaf.
These Glazed Meatloaves are packed with flavor. Here are the ingredients I love in this recipe:
- Kale! IN the meatloaf? Yes, ma’am (/sir). Hiding all up in there. Sauteed with sweet onion and garlic cloves.
- A small handful of cheddar cheese. The cheese is even more particularly amazing when it ends up on the underside of the loaves and hits the pan and gets all crispy. And when it mixes with…
- The glaze! Ketchup, apple cider vinegar, and a little brown sugar – YUM.
All of this healthiness is being prepped for stealthiness. Half a bunch of lacinato kale is used in this recipe, which works out to a whole stalk (or more) per mini meatloaf.
Looks pretty and fresh, right? I used a round cookie cutter to form six tightly-packed individual meatloaves. From a package of 1 to 1.2 lbs of lean ground beef, six meatloaves means you can have two individual meatloaves as a main course, or one with a big salad or on a sandwich – the shape is perfect for a cold meatloaf sandwich.
I have a whole set of concentric circle cookie cutters. If you do too, pick the size that works best for you – maybe you want to make 10 mini’s for little fingers. Biscuit cutters work as well. Just adjust the cooking time if needed.
Before:
After:
This guy is particularly attuned to beef-and-cheese-centric recipes. Maaaaybe a little extra cheese can be shredded for the four-legged among us?
SUPER attentive. Seriously, could not be more attentive.
- .25 sweet onion
- half a bunch of lacinato kale (~ 6 stalks), sliced very thinly and then chopped.
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 - 1.25lb lean ground beef
- .5 c fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs or panko
- 1 T mustard {I use honey dijon or something grainy}
- 2 T ketchup
- .5 t kosher salt
- 8 cranks freshly ground pepper
- 2 egg whites (or 1 egg)
- .25 c shredded cheddar cheese (or more!)
- 2 T ketchup
- 1 t light brown sugar
- 1 t apple cider vinegar
- Heat the oven to 400.
- Heat a large saute pan over high heat. When it's hot, add extra virgin olive oil and heat, swirling the oil to coat.
- Add the onion and saute until lightly browned. Add the kale and stir, cooking through. Add the garlic slices, making sure they hit the bottom of the pan to get cooked through; then cook the moisture out of the mixture. Set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl, place the ground beef, bread crumbs, mustard, ketchup, salt, pepper, egg, and cheese. Mix with your hands, until the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Add the veggie mixture to the meat; use your hands to evenly distribute.
- Pour a little oil on a paper towel and spread it around a large rimmed baking sheet.
- Divide the meat mixture in half, and then divide each half into three, so you have 6 even sections. Place a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter on the pan and use it as a ring mold, packing it with the meat mixture as tight as you can. Remove it, leaving the meat on the pan. Repeat for the rest of the meatloaves.
- In a small bowl, mix the glaze by stirring together the ketchup, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar. Spoon about a teaspoon onto each meatloaf, and spread around, using your fingers or the spoon. Use all of the glaze!
- Bake the meatloaves for 20 minutes.
- Scrape off the pan with a flat metal spatula, to make sure you get all the crispy cheese and glaze.
Need a change of pace for a pot luck dish? Glazed Meatloaves with kale and cheddar it is!
Adapted from: http://www.marthastewart.com/336901/mini-honey-mustard-meatloaves-with-roast & http://www.melskitchencafe.com/glazed-mini-meatloaves/ (glaze)
Taz sure is attentive to beef and cheese recipes.
This recipe looks amazing, going to try this week