This Vegan Meatloaf Recipe is a nutrient-dense, gluten free, and perfect for babies (BLW), toddlers and the whole family! Perfect as a make-ahead meal for your family.
This mini muffin tin vegan meatloaf recipes is my vegan take on a traditional meatloaf. Less boring than a traditional slice of meatloaf, these muffin tin versions are baby and toddler-friendly as they’re much easier for them to grab. Adults and little ones alike will love this mini vegan meatloaf recipe!
Table of contents
Why This Recipe Works
On top of being perfect for baby led weaning, there are so many reasons to love this vegan meatloaf recipe:
- Packed with healthy goodness
- Freezer friendly
- Family friendly
- Super tasty
Key Ingredients
Sweet potatoes — Sweet potatoes are packed with fibre, minerals, and vitamins. Keep the skins on for extra added healthy benefits!
Flax Egg – The flax egg acts as a binder to help hold the patties together. If you don’t need to make these vegan, you can use an egg instead. To make the flax egg, combine the ground flaxseed with water and set in the fridge.
Lentils — To cut down on prep work, we use canned lentils. You are welcomed to make your own from dried.
Cremini mushrooms — To give the meatloaf additional “meat” texture, we blitz up some mushrooms in the food processor.
Quick oats and Oat flour — To help bind the vegan meatloaf recipe together, we use oats and oat flour.
Homemade or store-bought ketchup — Check out this amazing ketchup recipe I made with no added sugar if you’d like to make your own healthier version of ketchup!
How to Make This Recipe
Before we start, make sure you make your flax egg by mixing ground flax with water and letting it in the fridge for an hour. You should also have cooked your sweet potato and lentils, you can do that as well. I usually microwave my sweet potatoes and use canned lentils to cut back on prep
Step 1: Preheat oven 375 F and in a food processor, pulse the mushrooms until they reach a ground meat like consistency.
Step 2: Heat a medium skillet over medium heat with olive oil and lightly saute the onion, garlic, mushrooms and thyme in olive oil.
Step 3: Put half of the lentils with the sweet potatoes into the food processor and puree until smooth.
Step 4: Then in a bowl, mix together the flax eggs, sautéed mushroom and onion, sweet potato lentil mixture, remaining lentils, tamari, oat flour, oats, hemp hearts and ketchup.
Step 5: Pack into mini muffin tins and glaze with a little extra of the ketchup. Then bake for 18 minutes for mini muffins and and 28 minutes for full muffins. Enjoy!
Expert Tips
If you don’t have oat flour, you can make your own by adding old fashioned rolled oats into a food processor or blender and blend until the oats are a fine texture.
When baking this vegan meatloaf recipe in a muffin tin, I strongly suggest using the silicon muffin molds which are sooo easy to clean and pop the little mini meatloaf muffins out.
If you’re not worried about having to keep this gluten-free, you can use soy sauce instead of tamari. Again, stick with the low sodium option.
Recipe FAQs
You bet! I always make a huge batch for the months ahead and then freeze these vegan meatloaf muffins in a freezer bag to pull out for a quickie meal or snack.
If you are reheating from the fridge, simply reheat in the microwave. If you are looking to reheat these after they’ve been frozen, you’ll have to thaw them overnight in the fridge first before microwaving or baking until warmed through.
Of course! It will take longer to cook, about 28 minutes for the full muffins or an hour for a meatloaf.
I am biased but my recipe for no sugar added baby friendly ketchup is the BOMB. The ketchup recipe was originally developed for babies, but the flavour is so sophisticated that adults totally love it too.
More Recipes You Might Like
Want more BLW recipes or toddler friendly recipes? Here are a few of Baby E’s favourites!
- Cheesy High Iron Baby Meatballs
- Baby Cereal Protein Pancakes
- Hummus Baby Meatballs
- Chickpea Peanut Butter Baby Biscuits
- Kale Pepper Baby Frittata Fingers
Vegan Meatloaf Recipe with Lentils | BLW + Toddler Friendly
Ingredients
- 2 sweet potato baked
- 3 flax eggs 3 tbsp ground flax + 6 tbsp water
- 3 cups cooked lentils can be canned
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsp fresh thyme
- 1 onion minced
- 3 cups cremini mushrooms sliced
- 3 tbsp reduced sodium tamari sauce gluten free, if needed
- 1 ¼ cups quick oats gluten free, if needed
- ½ cup oat flour gluten free, if needed
- ¼ cup hemp hearts
- ¼ cup homemade or storebought ketchup
- Salt and pepper to taste
Glaze
- ¼ c homemade or storebought ketchup
Instructions
- Preheat oven 375 F.
- Make your flax egg by mixing ground flax with water and letting it in the fridge for an hour. If you havent already cooked your sweet potato and lentils, you can do that as well. I usually microwave my sweet potatoes and use canned lentils to cut back on prep.
- In a food processor, pulse the mushrooms until they reach a ground meat like consistency.
- Heat a medium skillet over medium heat with olive oil and lightly saute the onion, garlic, mushrooms and thyme in olive oil.
- Put half of the lentils with the sweet potatoes into the food processor and puree until smooth.
- Then in a bowl, mix together the flax eggs, sauteed mushroom and onion, sweet potato lentil mixture, remaining lentils, tamari, oat flour, oats, hemp hearts and ketchup.
- Pack into mini muffin tins and glaze with a little extra of the ketchup. Then bake for 18 minutes for mini muffins and and 28 minutes for full muffins. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- If you don’t have oat flour, you can make your own by adding old fashioned rolled oats into a food processor or blender and blend until the oats are a fine texture.
- When baking this vegan lentil meatloaf in a muffin tin, I strongly suggest using the silicon muffin molds which are sooo easy to clean and pop the little mini meatloaf muffins out.
- If you’re not worried about having to keep this gluten-free, you can use soy sauce instead of tamari. Again, stick with the low sodium option.
Nutrition
Abbey Sharp is a Registered Dietitian (RD), regulated by the Ontario College of Dietitians. She is a mom, YouTuber, Blogger, award winning cookbook author, media coach specializing in food and nutrition influencers, and a frequent contributor to national publications like Healthline and on national broadcast TV shows.
emily says
We are not vegan, could we use regular egg here?
Abbey Sharp says
Yes!
Lesley says
Hi Abbey! Maybe a silly question, but is it 3 cups whole mushrooms, then sliced? Or 3 cups of sliced mushrooms?
Gerri says
Hello Abbey 🙂 I have a question about this recipe.
You have a link to the canned lentils on there and it leads to Amy’s Soup, Vegan, Gluten Free, Organic Lentil, 14.5 Ounce (Pack of 12).
Is this correct? Just asking because of the sodium content on there. Also, any replacement for the low sodium Tamari and low sodium soy sauce?
Look forward to your reply and making your recipe!
Abbey Sharp says
Thanks for catching that! The canned soup was an error and has been removed. You can use any can of lentils, which will be significantly lower in sodium.
The tamari or soy sauce give the muffins more flavour. So if you wanted to omit you can, and perhaps add a seasoning of your choice but it may impact overall taste.
Kristin says
So good! My husband and toddler both highly approved. Thanks for sharing a healthy yet satisfying recipe.
Kim says
Do you use green or red lentils?
Abbey Sharp says
Green lentils 🙂
Jody says
Do you think this would work with red lentils?
Abbey Sharp says
Yes, just be mindful that the red lentils aren’t too mushy! They tend to soften a lot quicker into a porridge-texture when cooking.
Caitlin says
Hey! Could you cook this in a loaf tin and if so, what do you reckon the cooking time would be?
Abbey Sharp says
You can try! I havent tried that but I would think it would take around 45-60 minutes.