diff --git a/easybuild/easyblocks/generic/mesonninja.py b/easybuild/easyblocks/generic/mesonninja.py
index e31e4cc4397..0c178139c65 100644
--- a/easybuild/easyblocks/generic/mesonninja.py
+++ b/easybuild/easyblocks/generic/mesonninja.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 
 from easybuild.tools import LooseVersion
 from easybuild.framework.easyblock import EasyBlock
-from easybuild.framework.easyconfig import CUSTOM
+from easybuild.framework.easyconfig import BUILD, CUSTOM
 from easybuild.tools.build_log import EasyBuildError
 from easybuild.tools.filetools import change_dir, create_unused_dir, which
 from easybuild.tools.modules import get_software_version
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
 
 DEFAULT_CONFIGURE_CMD = 'meson'
 DEFAULT_BUILD_CMD = 'ninja'
+DEFAULT_TEST_CMD = 'meson'
 DEFAULT_INSTALL_CMD = 'ninja'
 
 
@@ -59,7 +60,9 @@ def extra_options(extra_vars=None):
                              "This disabled costly asserts in code, typical for production.", CUSTOM],
             'configure_cmd': [DEFAULT_CONFIGURE_CMD, "Configure command to use", CUSTOM],
             'install_cmd': [DEFAULT_INSTALL_CMD, "Install command to use", CUSTOM],
+            'runtest': [None, "Meson target to test build, or True to use 'meson test'", BUILD],
             'separate_build_dir': [True, "Perform build in a separate directory", CUSTOM],
+            'test_cmd': [DEFAULT_TEST_CMD, "Test command to use ('runtest' value is appended)", CUSTOM],
         })
         return extra_vars
 
@@ -149,13 +152,45 @@ def build_step(self, *args, **kwargs):
 
     def test_step(self):
         """
-        Run tests using Ninja.
+        Run tests using Meson.
         """
-        if self.cfg['runtest']:
-            cmd = "%s %s %s" % (self.cfg['pretestopts'], self.cfg['runtest'], self.cfg['testopts'])
+        runtest = self.cfg['runtest']
+
+        if runtest:
+            # Essentially runtest = True. Use the default behavior.
+            if isinstance(runtest, bool):
+                test_cmd = self.cfg.get('test_cmd') or DEFAULT_TEST_CMD
+
+                # Run tests as recommended in https://mesonbuild.com/Unit-tests.html#testing-tool
+                if test_cmd == DEFAULT_TEST_CMD:
+                    runtest = 'test'
+                # User has defined the test_cmd. Adding test by default here might cause trouble, hence omit.
+                else:
+                    runtest = ''
+            # EasyConfig defined the test command to be executed via runtest
+            else:
+                test_cmd = ''
+
+            full_test_cmd = ' '.join([x for x in (test_cmd, runtest, self.cfg['testopts']) if x])
+            # Make sure Meson does not use more resources than we want.
+            # From the documentation:
+            # By default Meson uses as many concurrent processes as there are cores on the test machine.
+            if self.cfg.parallel >= 1 and 'meson' in full_test_cmd:
+                if 'MESON_TESTTHREADS' not in self.cfg['pretestopts']:
+                    self.cfg.update('pretestopts', f" export MESON_TESTTHREADS={self.cfg.parallel} && ")
+                # Preferred way to set parallelism since Meson v1.7.0, but does not hurt to set both.
+                if 'MESON_NUM_PROCESSES' not in self.cfg['pretestopts']:
+                    self.cfg.update('pretestopts', f" export MESON_NUM_PROCESSES={self.cfg.parallel} && ")
+
+            # Compose command filtering out empty values
+            cmd = ' '.join([x for x in (self.cfg['pretestopts'], full_test_cmd) if x])
             res = run_shell_cmd(cmd)
+
             return res.output
 
+        # No test executed, hence no output to return
+        return ''
+
     def install_step(self):
         """
         Install with 'ninja install'.