Vegetarian Chickpea "Meatballs"

in recipes •  6 years ago 

If you are like me, you can’t resist cravings of a meatball sub or the classic, fantastic dish of spaghetti and meatballs. However, if like me, you are also a vegetarian, you have had to find your way around cravings. Instead of opting for expensive or less nutritious prepared meat alternatives, give this recipe a try to sate your “meatball” needs.

These are great on any pasta, simmered in sauce or just placed on top. They are mostly chickpeas, so you are sure to get your fill of protein, as well as iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, and vitamin K.

Ingredients:

  • 15 ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • ¼ cup red onion, diced finely
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • ¼ tablespoon parmesan cheese
  • 1 large egg
  • ¾ cup dry Italian style breadcrumbs
  • 1 tablespoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground pepper
  1. Preheat oven to 425℉. Lightly coat baking sheet with cooking spray, set aside.
  2. In a small skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, cook for 2 minutes, add garlic and cook for an additional 4 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
  3. In a blender or food processor, pulse chickpeas until finely ground. If you do not have either appliance, they can easily be ground using a mortar and pestle.
  4. Stir parmesan, onion, garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper into chickpeas.
  5. Add egg and breadcrumbs to chickpea mixture. Stir well. Mixture will begin to resemble a dough.
  6. Scoop about 2 tablespoons per meatball and roll into balls. Place meatballs on prepared baking sheet.
  7. Bake for 15 minutes. Flip meatballs over on baking sheet and bake for additional 15 minutes.
  8. Serve with desired dish and enjoy!
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Nice recipe! Love this idea. Totally gonna veganize it! Just FIY if anyone does want to make these vegan, replace the egg with flax eggs. Just mix 1 tbsp ground flax with 3 tbsp water. And in place of parmesan, you can substitute nutritional yeast and substitute Panko breadcrumbs for Italian breadcrumbs.

I’ve never heard of flax eggs before.
😗

That sounds like an awesome idea! You'll have to let me know how those turn out!

Chick peas. Interesting idea! I would love to try this! (I LOVE my Italian food...I'm not a vegetarian, but I enjoy vegetarian food, and I know it's better for me!)

Thank you for this awesome vegetarian meatballs recipe! I look forward to testing it out. 🤗

Yum! These look really good! :)

More vegetarian recipes are good. Promoting a plant based diet should be rewarded when heart disease is the #1 cause of death in the United States.

howdy there pinkspectre! wow I've never seen anything like chickpea meatballs, I didn't know there was such a thing, do they taste anything like meat? The recipe looks great!

not use meat, health for body!

very nice loo great and tasty

This is very mouthwatering post hehehehe. Thanks for the procedure and ingredients. I will try it too :)