Instant Pot: Blue Cheese & Caramelized Onion Meatloaf

When it comes to flavor and ingredient combinations, I like to bring together things that are already familiar and incorporate them into a dish that’s unexpected. It’s a fun way to put a twist on classic foods. Tonight, I gave a classic meatloaf a fun new twist with this Blue Cheese & Caramelized Onion Meatloaf. Blue cheese and caramelized onions are a delicious duo on many things like pizza, pasta and even on steak… so why not incorporate these same ingredients in a meatloaf? Each bite has a taste of tangy blue cheese and sweet caramelized onions all mixed in. You just may look at meatloaf in a whole different light…

You can prepare this in a few ways aside from the usual meatloaf pan. Kids will love this cooked in a muffin pan. Or you can even bake in mini baking loaves for individual servings. You can even ditch the idea of meatloaf and roll the meat mixture into meatballs for a delicious appetizer. However you decide, you can’t go wrong! I served  this with a spinach and mushroom mashed potato which paired with the flavors wonderfully!

In your Instant Pot:

Plug in the IP with insert set in place.

Add trivet to the pot with 1 cup of water.

Lightly grease a loaf pans with cooking spray, set aside.

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup bread crumbs {or processed gf cracker crumbs} and 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese. Add ground beef, egg, onion, salt and pepper. Blend to incorporate all the ingredients evenly throughout. Try not to over handle the mixture otherwise it will get tough. Place the mixture in the greased loaf pans and form into mini loaves. 

Optional: Top the meatloaves with pasta sauce if desired & using.

Place the loaf pans onto the trivet. 

Secure the lid of the IP and ensure the valve is set to SEALING.

Press MANUAL and adjust the time to 15 minutes on HIGH pressure.

The display will reflect ON while the IP comes to pressure. Allow a few minutes for your IP to come to pressure.

Once at pressure, the display will reflect 15 (the number of minutes you initially set) and will begin to countdown to 0 minutes.

When the IP beeps after pressure cooking for 15 minutes, allow your IP to naturally release pressure for 5 minutes. While naturally releasing pressure (also known as NPR or NR), the display will reflect numbers counting up from 1. The numbers indicate how many minutes the IP has stopped cooking since it beeped (or how many minutes it has been naturally releasing pressure).  No need to touch your IP while it naturally releases pressure. The pin at the top of your IP will drop when all pressure has been released and it’s safe to open.

When the display reflects L5:00 (which is 5 minutes since the IP has beeped), turn the setting on top of your IP to VENTING. Doing so allows the IP to quickly release any remaining pressure (also known as QPR or QR). I use a wooden spoon to carefully turn the setting to avoid close contact with the potential steam. You may also want to turn your IP away from cabinets to allow the released steam to escape freely. The pin at the top of your IP will drop when all pressure has been released and it’s safe to open.

Preheat your broiler as you wait for the pin to drop and all pressure is released from the IP.

Open up your IP when the pin has dropped (allow a few minutes for this to happen).

Remove the meatloaf pans from the IP.

Place the meatloaves in the preheated oven and broil until browned to your preference.

Remove the meatloaf from the oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving/slicing. Garnish with parsley if desired.