VEGAN, VEGETARIAN, NUT-FREE, GLUTEN-FREE
Meatballs or ‘vegballs’ are an extremely versatile ‘keep at hand’ food item that can be re-purposed in a variety of ways. It can be served as-is as an appetizer. Or, top it off on a hardy, pasta dish. Both creamy pastas and saucy spaghetti can take a good vegball mixed in. How about a cool ‘kofta’ curry a.k.a Indian ‘special’ dish.
These vegballs can be made ahead of time and frozen so you can pull them out in a jiffy.
We have one main ingredient in these balls – Oats. These balls are made primarily with oats soaked in oat milk and mixed with loads of veggies. It has a nice ‘oaty’ aroma and a good chewy texture.
This dish can also be made gluten-free if you use gluten-free oats.
Carrots and potatoes form the binder along with crumbled bread pieces for the chewiness. I used multi-color baby carrots to provide a rich color.
The main flavor profile is basil leaves; this keeps the aroma ‘Italian’ if you may! By all means, use any herb of choice; just use plenty of them.
I simply rolled the balls in plain rice flour and pan-fried them til they were golden.
You can also air-fry them; They come out equally delicious and crunchy.
I am going to try to make a nice creamy kofta curry with these balls next. What are you planning to use them in?
Try these other Italian dishes as well –
Italian Spread – orzo mushroom risotto, ’caulipower’ penne and roasted mini peppers
Oat ‘meat’ VEG Balls
Ingredients
- 1 cup Oats
- 1 cup Oat milk
- 2 large Potatoes boiled and crumbled
- 3 Carrots multi-color boiled and crumbled
- 2 Bread Slices toasted and broken into pieces
- 1 small Onion chopped
- 1/2 cup Peppers mixed-colors diced
- 3 pods Garlic chopped
- Basil chopped
- 1 tsp Pasta seasoning
- Salt
- Rice Flour dusting
Instructions
- Soak the oats in oat milk for minimum of 30 minutes
- Coarsely crumble the oats, they should be practically dry after absorbing all the milk
- Next mix all the listed ingredients except Rice flour one by one and make into a nice dough
- Roll into balls of desired size and dust in plain rice flour
- Pan fry to a crisp golden color
- Cool complete and freeze as needed
