Tasty Vegan No Meat Meatballs

Deb | 08/13/2014 | 1 Reply

Looking for a tasty snack or hors d’oeuvre for a party? Look no further than these delicious “meatballs” that contain exactly zero animal products. They are firm, not dry, and hold their shape well just like meat-based meatballs do. Here they are on a skewer, but would do very well on a toothpick.

Use with your favorite dipping sauce or add near the end of cooking a pasta dish. I was looking for something that I originally was going to make a dish called Swedish Meatballs with, but decided against it once I tasted the meatballs. So I served them with a spicy tomato sauce called sugo all’arrabbiata over spaghetti squash. Whew, spicy is right. I went a little overboard with the red pepper.

Sorry, I didn’t take pictures of the process for you, but the end result is rather fabulous.

There is still quite a bit of the spicy sauce left, so I think next thing I try will be serving it over pasta. Sprinkled with vegan parmesan, this was a delicious and filling lunch.

Tasty Vegan No Meat Meatballs

Created by:

Deb Cooper of BlacksGoingVegan.Com

Recipe Type: Entrees

Cuisine: Vegan

Number Servings: 30

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins

Trying to create a recipe to use when making Swedish Meatballs, I instead used a spicy sugo all'arrabbiata sauce and these delicious faux meatballs held up beautifully. I was going to save this recipe for the "Why Vegan is the New Black" cookbook, but decided to post it up instead with a link to the book page, so you could get an idea of the unique and tasty recipes in store for purchasers.

What You Need

1 cup vital wheat gluten
¾ cup whole raw almonds
3 Tablespoons chickpea flour
¼ cup nutritional yeast
¼ cup fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
2 Tablespoons dried parsley leaves
½ teaspoon Himalayan pink salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup hot water
6 Baby Bella mushroom caps
½ Not Beef bouillon cube
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons vegan Worchestershire sauce
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons minced red onion

How to Do It

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place almonds and chickpea flour in food processor. Pulse until a fine meal forms. Remove from food processor into small bowl.
Measure out 1 cup of almond/chickpea meal into a large mixing bowl. Add the vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, parsley leaves, oregano, salt, and pepper. Whisk to mix well.
Put mushroom caps, water, bouillon cube, olive oil, fresh basil, vegan Worchestershire sauce, garlic and red onion into food processor and pulse 6-8 times until blended.
Add wet ingredients from food processor to dry ingredients in mixing bowl, mixing well with rubber spatula. Knead for a minute or two to make sure all dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated into the dough.
Pinch off small pieces (one slightly rounded Tablespoon) of the dough and roll it into a small ball no larger than 1” across to make sure it cooks evenly and thoroughly.
Place meatballs in a single layer in a lightly oiled baking dish. The baking dish should be a size that can fit into a larger baking pan that will hold water, providing moisture while the meatballs bake.
Cover the pan with the meatballs tightly with aluminum foil, then sit into larger pan that holds about ½” of water.
Bake for 45-60 minutes. Remove both pans from oven.
Wait 15 minutes before removing the foil.