Vegan No-Meatballs

Vegan no-meatballs or lightly-spiced rice and lentil no-meatballs on a bed of mushroom and tomato sauce with steamed broccoli. It may be true but it’s just not catchy enough is it?

These no-meatballs were going to be made with completely different ingredients originally – I was thinking of buckwheat and tofu, but I hadn’t realised my buckwheat was out of date and the shops were closed for the fair so I couldn’t get tofu. Then I remembered I had both brown rice and lentils in the fridge so obviously I used those!

I think I may have mentioned before that we like our food lightly-spiced, if you want your meatballs with more of a kick just double (or triple) the amount of spices you add. The tomato and mushroom sauce is slowly reduced to give it a very concentrated flavour so it would hold up well to a spicier no-meatball.

Ras-el-Hanout is a spice typical in North African cuisine and there is no one fixed recipe for it. It’s slightly hot and has a deep flavour. Some brands contain salt so you should adjust the salt you add to the recipe accordingly. If you live in Spain, like me, I found it in the supermarket Carrefour in the international products section. I imagine most well-stocked supermarkets in the UK would sell it too. If you can’t find it, I’m sure you can swap it for curry powder.

I accompanied it with steamed broccoli which tasted so good in the rich tomato sauce. I’m lucky enough to have a steamer basket which fits on top of my saucepan so I made the tomato and mushroom sauce in the bottom and steamed the broccoli on top, saving on energy use.

I’m sharing this recipe with Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck

Preparation Time: 20 minutes                              Servings: 2                                               Cooking Time:         30 minutes                                                                                                     Total:  40 minutes (there’s some overlap, while one part is cooking, you are                                                                prepping the next)

Vegan No-Meatballs

Ingredients:

3/4 onion

1 carrot

1tsp ras-el hanout

4 mushrooms

5 plum tomatoes

100ml aprox. vegatable stock

1/2 broccoli

extra virgin olive oil

150g cooked lentils (I used tinned)

120g cooked brown rice

1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax with 2tbsp of water and left to set in the fridge 15minutes)

1. Start with the sauce. Finely chop 1/2 an onion and saute in a tablespoon of olive oil. Slice the mushrooms and the tomatoes. Add to the pan with the onion. Once the mushrooms have cooked a little (about 5 minutes) add the stock and cover. Cook over a low heat for about 30 minutes. Add a little water if the sauce gets too dry.

2. Meanwhile in a saucepan, saute 1/4 of finely chopped onion. Peel and grate the carrot. Add to the pan with 1 teaspoon of ras-el-hanout and a teaspoon of salt. After about 10 minutes add the rice and lentils and allow to absorb the flavour. Remove from the heat.

3. Wash the broccoli and separate into florets. Steam for abour 20 minutes or until cooked.

4. Add the flax egg to the rice and lentil mixture. Mix well. Form “meatball shapes” with your hands. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a saucepan and lightly fry the no-meatballs until slightly browned on the outside.

5. Serve the no-meatballs on a bed of tomato and mushroom sauce with the broccoli on the side.