vegan meatballs?
Posted by Anonymous on Jan 07, 2007 · Member since Dec 1969 · 11789 posts
Anyone have a REALLY good recipe for vegan meatballs? I'm so in the mood to make some vegan meatball hero's (or depending upon where you live...hoagie, subs, etc).
I'm trying not to go shopping before I go out of town and have tons of ingredients to make stuff. I was going to make them out of seiten...but...I want to see if anyone has anything I could whip up in less time. Anyone out there? :)
The easiest way I have found is to use Litelife Beef Style tube stuff. Just ball it up and brown it. I do it with the sausage kind now that I can't find the Beef type. Some are opposed to this because its owned by Conagra but it is non-GMO. It is quick at least! I would love a quick alternative too if there is one. Nates makes a super pre-packaged one too (Health Food Store only I would imagine).
thanks,
I'm just trying to make them from scratch instead of heading out into the "monsoon" weather we are having today (even the dogs don't want to go out). My local store sells vegan meatballs, and the "tube stuff". That's what I usually buy, I just figured I'd try to make them from scratch for once. I guess I could make my veggie burgers recipe and just make them into little balls ::)
thanks again ;)
Awesome! Thanks! :)
erg..i used ot have an old italian grandmother recipe for meatless meatballs..no fake meat sub required..it's all bread Ill see if i can find it in my recipe box .
there's a recipe for sweet & sour "neat" balls in The Everyday Vegan. i can't post now, so i'll do it later
There are some really good patty recipes in Louise Hagler's "Tofu Cookery." Any of the patties can be made into balls. I made "seaside cakes" and made them as balls yesterday. There is a sweet and sour tofu ball in there that is TDF. I made it for tonight and had to sneak one for lunch!
There is a neatball recipe in the original old Laurel's Kitchen that uses soybeans. If I had my copy handy I'd post it, but alas, I do not.
Any fairly stiff bean burger recipe will stand up to make baked neatballs. I have a #10 ice cream scoop I use to make them and I can do it easily and neatly this way. Best of all, they are uniform. If you make your own neatballs and bake them all at once, doubling or tripling the recipe, then freeze on a cookie sheet till hard and pop them in a bag. They will come apart easily this way and you can dip in and use only what you need.
I have not personally found a packed meatball substitute that I like, so always make my own.
I use my Lightlife Beef with my grandmother's recipe. You need to include plenty of fresh garlic and freshly chopped parsley, as well as parmasan cheese substitute.
I meant Gimme Lean, the stuff in the tube.
from the cookbook ' The Everyday Vegan'
Sweet & Sour "Neat" Balls
sweet & Sour Sauce:
2 1/2 tbsp arrowroot
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar or brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp tamari
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
neatballs:
2 cups extra-firm tofu, finely minced
1 cup good quality breadcrumbs
1/2 cup red onion, minced
1/2 cup celery, minced
1/4 cup carrots, minced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro or parsley, finely chopped
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 1/2 tbsp miso (brown rice is best)
2 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 whole bulb roasted garlic
for the sauce:
completely dissolve arrowroot in water, stirring well until very smooth. in a suacepan, combine this with the other ingredients. bring mixture to a boil, stirring frequently, particularly once the sauce begins to thicken. once it reaches a boil, remove from heat and serve, or cover with a lid until ready to serve. season with sea salt and black pepper (if desired)
for the neatballs:
preheat oven to 400. in a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well, pressing mixture slightly. the mixture should hold together well when poressed down. if it is still a little moist. add another teaspoon or two of whole wheat flour and if it needs to bind more, add a little extra hoisin or miso (not too much or it will be too salty). the more you work with and press the mixture, the better it will bind to form the balls. scoop mixture with your hands and form golf-ball sized balls (will yield roughly 19-20 balls). place on a baking sheet lightly oiled or lined with parchment paper. if you have an olive oil spritzer, spritz the balls lightly with oil before baking. bake for 19-22 minutes until lightly browned.
when serving, do not mix the tofy balls into the sweet & sour sauce, as they can easily crumble. rather, serve them over rice, veggies, or on their own, then coat generously with the sauce.
makes 4-5 servings.
nutritional information:
serving size 4-5 tofu balls w/ 1/2 cup sauce:
Calories 331
total fat 8.9 g. (sat fat 1.6 g)
cholesterol 0
carbohydrate: 49.3 g
Fiber 3.6 g
protein 13.1 g
these are freaking excellent
oh YUM. Thanks for posting this, secondbase... I'm definitely going to try it out.
Hey secondbase!
I just remembered this morning that I never thanked you for this recipe! I know it must have taken you a good amount of time to post it (it was rude of me not to thank you)...so thanks! I'll try it out and let you know how they come out. Has anyone made them yet?
oh...BTW..where can I get one of those shirts? (I'd love to wear one on tour next month, have a picture taken, and post it back here on vegweb)!
you're very welcome for the recipe. i've tried it and it's a great recipe so it was worth the time to post it here for those who do not own the cookbook.
if you're referring to the shirt in my userpic, i just picked it up at a Western/Cowboy shop here in my area. it was right next to all the leather belts and hats and saddles and whatnot. great, huh? :-\
no, the shirt she's wearing in your gallery. I guess the only ones that would get it would be vegweb users in Europe (that's where I'll be). 8)
oh, right. she actually just sharpied that onto the shirt right before the event. we walked around together the whole night and everyone was taking our photo. it was great
Hi dave
I used to do meatballs the peasy way
grind down a tin of chickpeas (drained) until fine as you can get them, add basil, thyme, soya sauce, garlic powder, whatever taste you want from your meatballs, mix up with flour of your choice then form into balls, shallow fry, its basically how you would make falafel but without the cumin and corriander etc and meatball herbs and spices instead, you could add a finely chopped onion too if you liked....can be a little dry but if you are having them with spaghetti and sauce, or with a sauce in your sub should be nice
;)
kat
I wrote a recipe a while back and I'm pretty proud of it: http://thespiritualvegan.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/vegan-meatball-patties/