Instant Pot Meat Loaf

This Instant Pot Meat Loaf is delicious! I love meatloaf and it turns out that so does the little Tapita! It's delicious hot or cold so really convenient. Perfect for picnics for that imminent spring weather that is round the corner.

I have added a lot of flavour and a lot of vegetables to this meatloaf and it has been a hit with the little Tapita so I am sticking to it from now on (as much as I can stick to any recipe anyway!).

As you don't all have an Instant Pot yet, I have given instructions below for other ways of cooking.

Ingredients

• onion
• carrot
• garlic
• pepper
• mince (a mixture of pork and beef works well, so does all turkey mince)
• soy sauce or tamari
• mustard
• herbs

I have made it all beef with a mixture of pork and beef and also with all turkey mince. A mixture of pork and beef or all turkey are my favourites.

In fact, I was expecting the all-turkey meat loaf to be blander in flavour but it's positively delicious and still full of flavour.

Timings

The timings for a pressure cooker meat loaf are in the recipe card below.

Would rather cook it in the oven?

If you don't have an Instant Pot (yet) and you fancy giving this meat loaf a go, place in the oven preheated at around 200ºC covered in foil for a good 30 minutes, then remove the foil and keep cooking for a few minutes until cooked through.

In the air fryer

Start at 180ºC for 25 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to check the centre is cooked through.

But this mix isn't just great for meat loaf, so here are timings for other things you might want to turn it into:

Meatballs

5 minutes with natural pressure release in a steamer basket with 250 ml water in the inner pot (these are the most popular Instant Pot steamer baskets and inserts).

Or use the meatballs instead of sausages in my All-in-One Instant Pot Sausage and Tomato Pasta.

Mini Meat Loaves

I have old mini loaf moulds from Sainsbury's, they fit side by side in your Instant Pot, handy if you want to freeze some! In this case do 15 minutes on the trivet.

Fry as meatballs or burger patties?

Easy, just turn into meatballs or patties and just shallow fry in a bit of oil until cooked through.

Air fry as meatballs or burger patties?

In an Air Fryer. No need to preheat.

If your air fryer has a built-in preheating phase like the Vortex does, start by air frying for 8 minutes at 180ºC.

If your air fryer doesn't have a built-in preheating phase, like the Cosori, start with 10 minutes at 180ºC.

Try to turn the meatballs a couple of times during air frying time.

BBQ

Just barbecue until cooked through

Equipment

• Pressure cooker
• Loaf pan
• Meat thermometer

What pan / mould should I use for this Instant Pot Meat Loaf?

Although you do not need a loaf mould for this, it does help make it very juicy.

You definitely want it for the all-turkey mince version, as it doesn't hold together as well as the pork-beef version

No loaf pan? Not to worry! You could wrap it in foil, do not pack it up too tightly though.

Any loaf pan that fits inside your pressure cooker will do BUT do not forget to leave a minimum of a 2 cm clearance for steam to circulate safely so you want it to be smaller than your inner pot by at least 2 centimetres.

In the photos you can see the Instant Pot Non-Stick Silicone Loaf Mould which has a detachable sturdy tempered glass base, is super easy to use and can go in the dishwasher!

I have to say I had my doubts at first about this type of pan given my clumsiness, the glass, the way the silicone wraps around the glass...

But, to my surprise, I have found it easier to use than conventional metal springform tins.

Got a Thermomix?

This recipe helps give your Thermie a workout too, helping you chop all the veg.

You can also mix the meat mix on reverse but it doesn't work all the flavours in as well as a big of hands-on effort (I have tried it both ways now and definitely mixing it all by hand).

Instant Pot Meat Loaf

Maria Bravo

A delicious meat loaf with lots of flavour using ingredients you can easily find in UK supermarkets. Eat hot or cold. Great for picnics or with a salad.

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Prep Time 5 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine British

Servings 6 people

Equipment

• Instant Pot
• Trivet
• Silicone loaf mould

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1 carrot finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• Half an orange pepper chopped (feel free to use any colour of pepper you prefer of course)
• 500 g pork mince or you can use all turkey mince
• 454 g beef mince or you can use all turkey mince (it doesn't have to be 454 g exactly, it can be 400, it can be 500)
• 2 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon English mustard
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon mixed herbs
• Lots of ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

For cooking

• 500 ml water from the cold tap

Instructions

 

Note for Thermomix users: you can chop the onion, carrot and garlic together for 5 seconds, speed 5. Then add the pepper and do 2 seconds, speed 5. Then either add all other ingredients except the water to the Thermomix bowl and do a few seconds on REVERSE, speed 3 to mix up.

• Place the mince in a large mixing bowl, add the chopped veg and all other ingredients except the water and mix well.
• Compact into a meat loaf. If using a mould, grease it with oil (I used olive oil) and place it in that. In the Instant Pot Silicone mould I also moulded it away from the walls with my hands to give it extra shape. Remember not to compact too much. And also remember you don’t need a mould for the pork and beef version (the turkey one is a bit more fragile) but it is good to have your meat loaf in something so that it stays juicy. Of course you can turn it into meatballs or burgers.
• Pour the 500 ml of water into the inner pot, place the trivet in place, place the meat loaf on top (or the meatballs in a steamer basket if you prefer, no need for the trivet then). Close the lid, making sure the sealing ring is properly in place and the steam release handle is pointing to Sealing.
• Pressure cook on high pressure for 35 minutes, perform a natural pressure release at the end (i.e. let the float valve pop back down on its own, if you have been waiting longer than 15 minutes and the float valve hasn’t popped back down, just release the rest of the steam). My guess is it would be the same times if wrapping in foil instead of using the loaf pan.
• Check that the meat loaf is cooked through either by cutting it open or with a meat thermometer.
• The meat loaf can be sliced and served straight away but bear in mind a bit of standing time will make it easier to slice. It can also be served cold the next day (when it will slice much better).

Notes

Tip: feel free to turn this recipe into burgers (to fry or steam, around 7-10 minutes), meatballs (if you roll them small they only need 5 minutes in a steamer basket), anything you can think of. If you turn it into meatballs, make sure you make them small and try them in my Sausage Pasta. Or even into meat loaves using the Sainsbury’s mini meat loaf moulds mentioned above (15 minutes for those). All these timings could do with a natural release.

Oven

If you don’t have an Instant Pot (yet) and you fancy giving this a go, place in the oven preheated at around 200ºC covered in foil for a good 30 minutes, then remove the foil and keep cooking for a few minutes until cooked through.

Meatballs or patties for frying

Easy, just turn into meatballs or patties and just shallow fry in a bit of oil until cooked through.

BBQ

Just barbecue until cooked through.

*Terminology

 

Quick release (also called quick pressure release or QPR) means venting the steam as soon as the pressure cooking process finishes, i.e. moving the steam release handle from Sealing to Venting.

 

Natural release (also called natural pressure release or NPR) means letting the float valve pop back down of its own accord, so basically you don’t need to do anything at the end and can keep your feet up. If it takes over 15 minutes, you're ok to release the rest of the steam (by turning the steam release handle to Venting) that may be left in order to unlock and open the lid. 

 

Sometimes you'll see me talk of a combination of NPR followed by a QPR. For example, a recipe can have a 4 minute NPR followed by a QPR. This means that you wait for 4 minutes at the end of the pressure cooking time and then do a QPR by moving the steam release handle from Sealing to Venting. 

Tried this recipe?Mention @feistytapas or tag #feistytapas!

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