Add more flavour to your regular meatloaf by pairing it with mushrooms sautéed with herbs and garlic and folded into silky cream cheese. This stuffed meatloaf recipe will keep your family coming for more.

Serve with our Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes for a cozy dinner at home.

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This meatloaf recipe is coming from our family archives. Do you have such a recipe you used to love and then completely forgot about it?

Well this meatloaf, alongside my version of classic meatloaf, is one of those. It used to be on a regular rotation for midweek dinners, weekends and even when guests came over. Then I decided it was too retro. Silly me! This meatloaf is delicious and it’s time to bring it back.

Although I realise I might not impress you with a recipe (who doesn’t have one, right?), I might entice you with my stuffed meatloaf ideas.

Meatloaf stuffed with creamed mushrooms with herbs and garlic.

Stuffed Meatloaf Ideas

The one I am sharing today is a meatloaf stuffed with mushrooms, sautéed with onions, fresh thyme and garlic and then folded into luscious cream cheese.

I’ve also added a handful of fresh arugula to my stuffing mix for a peppery flavour and extra shot of the greens.

If you are not into mushrooms, you can substitute with chopped artichokes. I would recommend using canned artichokes in brine, not oil or frozen artichokes. You can also use spinach instead of arugula.

Alternatively, you can stuff your meatloaf with cheese like mozzarella or cheddar. It will also work well in this recipe as a substitute for cream cheese.

Simply cool the cooked mushroom mixture, then mix it with grated mozzarella or the cheese of your choice and stuff the meatloaf with cheesy mushrooms.

Recipe Tips and Notes

Start by preparing the vegetables, so all ingredients are ready to go before you start cooking. This particular recipe calls for 200g/4 cups chopped mushrooms. Make sure they are chopped finely for the filling to stay together.
Sauté chopped onion, mushrooms, thyme and garlic until most of the liquid from mushrooms evaporated, then add flour to thicken the filling and stir until it is combined with the mushroom juices. The mixture will be pasty.
Add the cream cheese and let it melt into the mushroom mixture. You can use either full fat or low fat cream cheese. Finally stir in the fresh arugula and take it off the heat. Cool the creamy mushroom stuffing for 10 minutes.
Combine all meatloaf ingredients together in a large bowl. The best way to mix the meatloaf ingredients is by hand. You can use kitchen gloves if you don’t like touching meat.
Grease the loaf pan and line the bottom and sides of the pan with ⅔ of the meatloaf mixture, creating a tunnel for the filling. Then cover the top with the remaining meat. Seal the seams. Bake in the oven at 350F/180C for 50 min- 1 hour.
If you are not sure whether your meatloaf is cooked, test the internal temperature, which should read 160F/70C. It will dry out if you continue baking it longer than recommended.

How to avoid dry meatloaf

Start with good quality beef. If using lean beef, add a little liquid like milk, water, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce or even a bit of jarred salsa can all work wonders.
Traditionally breadcrumbs or oats in combination with beaten eggs are added to a meatloaf mixture for binding. However, dry breadcrumbs or oats will draw moisture out of meat. That is why adding extra liquid is recommended.
I like adding Worcestershire sauce for flavour as well as fresh herbs, sautéed onions and a dash of paprika. However, the spice mixture is easily customisable to your own taste.
I find adding sautéed onions instead of raw ones significantly improves flavour and texture.

Serving suggestions

Meatloaf is a robust dish, and the added creamy filling means that it is not getting any lighter. That means that a fresh, zesty side dish is pretty much perfect.

It’s hard to go wrong with a fresh salad, but I love adding veggies like roasted Tenderstem broccoli with lemon garlic vinaigrette, or roasted rainbow carrots.

Potatoes are also welcome alongside meatloaf. A tasty champ or herb and garlic mashed potatoes will do very well!

Storage and Leftovers

Leftovers will keep well in a refrigerator for 3-4 days when stored in an airtight container. I don’t recommend freezing anything that contains cream cheese, which tends to separate when defrosted.

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