Ya'll. These meatballs are super good. All the yum noises.
They're satisfying, full of flavour, and are packed with protein. Plus, they're not too complicated to make and contain ingredients you probably have lying around in your pantry anyway.
I'm telling you, you so won't be sorry you made these. Plus, they're just good old fashioned comfort food. I mean, hearty Italian meatballs with homemade marinara... What more do you want in life!?
Recipea:
Makes 6-8 large meatballs
Prep time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
Meatballs:
1 red onion, minced
3 cloves garlic
1 can brown or green lentils
1 flaxegg (1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds, 3 tablespoons of water, leave to set for 5 minutes)
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 tablespoons oregano
1/2 tablespoon herbs de provence
Ground salt to taste
Ground pepper to taste
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 cup ground nuts and seeds (I only used 3/4 cup) - use whatever you have around the house - I used sesame seed, pumpkin seed, flaxseed, pumpkin seed, brazil nuts, cashews
2 tablespoons olive oil
Tomato sauce
1 can chopped tomatoes
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon herbs de provence
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Ground salt & pepper
1 big handful of fresh basil
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375°F/190°C.
Saute onion and garlic over medium-high heat in a medium pan. Make flaxegg and leave to set. Add lentils and cook thoroughly. Stir with a wooden or silicon spoon and once the lentils are tender, try to mash them down a bit while stirring so that they form a slightly sticky, loose paste. Take the pan off the heat, add flax egg and stir to combine. Add soy sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, oregano, herbs de provence, salt and pepper, and nutritional yeast and stir to combine.
Added bonus of making lentil meatballs rather than actual meatballs: You can taste it as you go so that you can see if you need/want a bit more of any of the spices. Do that.
Add the nuts and seeds in 1/4 cup increments to see how much you need. Depending on the type of lentil you use and how long you have them cooking, you could have more or less liquid to be soaked up by the nuts. The nuts should act as a binder to help make the meatballs stick together and be firm... but they should be crumbling apart or dry from too much of the ground nuts. Remember you can always add more, but its harder to take away.
Stick them on a greased baking tray and brush them with the olive oil before placing them in the oven for 10 minutes.
While that's baking, make your pasta and tomato sauce.
Boil some water and get your pasta going. I'm going to trust you to know how to make pasta. You got this.
While that's going, toss the canned and fresh tomatoes and dried herbs and spices into a medium saucepan (or let's be real, you can just use the same pan you used for the meatballs - less cleanup!). Simmer covered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After 10 minutes - or when the meatballs have browned a bit, give them a turn and bake for 10 more minutes until both sides are nicely browned.
Add the chopped fresh basil and the baked meatballs in and give them a turn to coat. Arrange over the pasta and bask in the glow of your own homemade vegan meatballs.
You, my friend, are a winner.
