What's better than a giant bowl of pasta with meatballs? We're making vegan meatballs using lentils, a dish any type of eater can enjoy. These meatballs are full of protein and Italian flavor.
Using the lentils and flavors from the broth of our French Lentil Soup, we can skip a few steps and make this recipe a little simpler.
There are quite a few ingredients in this recipe, but we're basically just going to be combining them all to form the meatballs. Start by mixing the lentils from the soup with flaxseed meal and a few tablespoons of broth. Finely chop garlic, onion and celery, and cook with a little soup broth.
Add this mixture from the pan into a food processor along with the lentils, oats, nutritional yeast, and all seasonings. Pulse until combined but a little chunky. Form balls and coat with bread crumbs, then bake your perfect meatballs for about 25 minutes.
Serve over a bed of your favorite pasta and sauce. Enjoy!
If you made these protein-packed vegan lentil meatballs and are pleased with how yours turned out, leave a few stars down below and tell us how we did. Or snap a picture and tag us on Instagramso we can see your masterpiece for ourselves!
What's better than a giant bowl of pasta with meatballs? We're making vegan meatballs using lentils, a dish any type of eater can enjoy. These meatballs are full of protein and Italian flavor.
3 tbsp soup liquid reserved from Right Foods French Lentil Soup
3 cloves garlic
1/2 onion
1 stalk celery
6 tbsp quick oats
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley
4 tbsp nutritional yeast
salt to taste
pepper to taste
3/4 cup plain bread crumbs
Directions
Strain the lentil soup through a fine mesh sieve and reserve the liquid. In a small bowl, mix together the flaxseed meal and 3 tablespoons of the reserved soup liquid and set aside for 15 minutes.
Place the garlic, onion and celery into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
Heat a small skillet over medium heat, preheat oven to 375 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Once the skillet is hot, add in the vegetables from the food processor along with about 3 tablespoons of the reserved soup liquid. Sauté for 4-5 minutes, fragrant and beginning brown, adding more liquid as necessary to prevent burning.
Remove from heat and add it back into the food processor along with the strained lentil soup, oats, Italian seasoning, parsley, nutritional yeast, and a pinch of both salt and pepper. Pulse until combined, but not puréed. It should be slightly chunky.
Adjust seasonings to taste. If the mixture is still too wet, add in more quick oats, 1 tablespoon at a time, until a dough like consistency is reached.
Pour the breadcrumbs into a small bowl.
Using a tablespoon or cookie dough scoop, scoop out rounded tablespoons of the dough into the breadcrumbs, and gently toss to coat. Carefully remove the meatballs, form them into balls using your hands and place them onto the lined baking sheet. Repeat until all of the dough is formed into meatballs - we ended up with about 22.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until browned on the bottom and firm. Cool completely.
To serve: gently toss in marinara sauce, and serve with pasta of choice.
