Grain-Free Greek Main Dish Muffins

If your stuff always falls out of your wraps or gyros, how about a main dish muffin for a semi-portable meal that’s also uber fun and delicious?

In my attempt to have fun with food this week, I created a silly muffin meal: muffins, followed by muffins, with a side of muffins, and muffins for dessert.

All food groups were well represented, and I thought it made for a mighty pretty plate, in spite of the ridiculousness of a plate full of muffins for dinner.

Today I’ll share the recipe for the main dish muffin: meat, beans, eggs, and cheese, packed with protein and baked with tantalizing Greek flavors.

The muffins are loosely based on a meat and spinach muffin from Well Fed, a Paleo cookbook. We had the author’s version for breakfast once, and my wheels started turning about how many places those muffins could go.

If you’re rolling your eyes right now, I know: it’s ironic that I added legumes and cheese to a Paleo dish. Eh. It’s still grain-free, at least.

Greek Main Dish Meat-and-Chickpea Muffins

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• Author: Katie Kimball
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins
• Total Time: 1 hour 10 mins
• Yield: 4 1x

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 1/2 lb. ground beef
• 1 1/2 c. cooked chickpeas, divided
• 1/2 tsp. salt (Use the code kitchenstewardship for 15% off of your first purchase)
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/2 c. chopped red pepper (optional)
• 1/2 c. chopped onion (about 1 medium)
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2–6 c. fresh spinach
• 1/2–1 c. chopped broccoli, optional
• 1 Tbs. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 c. feta cheese, plus more to top
• 4 eggs
• chopped tomatoes for topping

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Instructions

1. Brown the beef, seasoning with salt and pepper and adding onions and peppers for the last 5 minutes.
2. While this is cooking, mash or food process 1 cup of the chickpeas (garbanzo beans). Also put muffin cup liners in your pan. You’ll want them! Preheat the oven to 375F.
3. When the onions are getting translucent, add the crushed garlic and fresh spinach, washed and roughly chopped, stirring over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until the spinach is all wilted. Turn off the heat.
4. Alternate spinach methods: You could also very quickly steam the spinach separately OR use frozen spinach, about a pound package, but you’d need to thaw and thoroughly drain it first.
5. Add chopped broccoli or any other veggies you want to sneak in there.
6. In a medium sized bowl, beat the eggs, then mix in all the meat and veggie mixture, plus the additional half cup whole chickpeas, lemon juice, oregano, and feta cheese. If you added extra veggies, you may need an additional egg to compensate.
7. Transfer to lined muffin cups with a heaping quarter cup measuring cup and gently press down with the bottom of the cup.
8. Bake at 375F for 30-40 minutes or 15-20 for mini muffins.
9. They’re done when the egg is set.
10. Serve with additional feta and chopped tomatoes on top.
11. Makes 12 muffins or 24 mini muffins (or more if you add more veggies).

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Notes

Did you know you can freeze feta cheese? Don’t ever let a container go bad again. Using it in muffins like these is a great way to get it out of the freezer and onto your plate.

The whole chickpeas can be like a treasure hunt. Who gets one? 😉

Need lower carb? Take the chickpeas right out and just use a whole pound of ground beef.

Inspired by Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan.

• Need a little help getting healthy food on the table every day? Real Plans takes the stress out of meal planning and puts the nourishing food BACK on your table. There’s a plan for every diet type, including GAPS, Paleo, AIP, Whole30, vegetarian and more! You remain totally in control: use your own recipes, accept theirs, and teach the system what your family likes…Check out how powerful it is here!

Need a starter salad for the meal? Try this yummy homemade Greek dressing.

Want more muffins to make a meal? You’ll laugh at our silly muffin meal.

Pizza Muffins?

I’ve had quite a bit of fun trying alternative versions of this muffin. I think I’ve perfected the pizza muffin – my husband said, “This may be the best breakfast I’ve ever had…it’s like eating pizza for breakfast, but without worrying about the grains!”

They have cheese right on top, and oh! So good!

If you want that recipe, though, you’ll have to check out The Healthy Breakfast Book…

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post to Amazon from which I will earn some commission if you make a purchase. See my full disclosure statement here.