Easy Mediterranean Lentil Meatballs
Oops… somehow its nearly the end of February and I’ve only just got round to posting a roundup of how we got on.
Better late than never, here’s 10 things we discovered during Veganuary:
1. The transition from vegetarian to vegan isn’t nearly as difficult as I expected. Sitting down to plan our first week’s meals felt like a bit of a chore, but once we had got the hang of what we couldn’t and couldn’t eat, and worked out some substitutions and shortcuts, it was pretty straightforward.
2. We didn’t miss cheese nearly as much as we thought. And I discovered that its usually the saltiness of the cheese that I crave, so just seasoning well and adding salty things like capers and olives to pasta sauces, for instance, is a great substitute and also far lower calorie/fat/cholesterol. I’m a bit of a chilli fiend, and found that turning up the heat also distracts you from a lack of cheese!
3. Tomor is a brilliant butter substitute for cooking and baking. Try it – you won’t believe its not butter.
4. You get used to soya milk in tea after 10 days. After a dubious start, we’re still using soya milk in our house, so it can’t be at all bad. We tried lots of other milk alternatives which were great for other things, but none beat soya in tea.
5. Most ready-made pastry is vegan. Who knew? Obviously not the all-butter stuff, but this is a great thing to know about if you are cooking for vegan guests. I’ve said it before…. everyone loves a pie.
6. Bird’s custard powder is vegan. Who knew? Made up with hazlenut or almond milk it is absolutely lovely. I cooked Sunday lunch for some very vegan-sceptic omnivore friends and they were absolutely not expecting apple pie & custard for pudding.
7. Baking isn’t out of the question. Start with this amazing chocolate cake, then try these dairy-free recipes – all by Dan Lepard for the Guardian.
8. The prefix ‘vegan’ makes things sound a bit less appetizing to non-vegans. Sorry vegans, but I’m afraid its true. “Vegan custard”, “vegan gravy”, “vegan chocolate cake” – you’re just not really expecting them to taste very nice. Instead, just call them custard, gravy and chocolate cake, and let the vegans know they are dairy-free.
9. The hardest thing about being vegan was social situations. Having to refuse a slice of a friend’s homemade birthday cake felt rude. Whipping out a little tub of soya milk at a new mother and toddler group meant having the whole vegan conversation with a group of people I hadn’t met before. I had to insist on bringing our own food to a few parties and meals at friends houses, which was a bit awkward. I’m sure you get used to these things if you are vegan long-term, but I struggled on this front.
10. Tweeting pictures of your dinner every day really makes you think carefully about portion size, meal balance (ie. where is the protein coming from), presentation, menu planning etc.
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So, overall a very interesting experiment and we are now eating far less dairy at home – still using soya milk and being far more careful with cheese. We felt really good at the end of the month, and being forced to think more carefully about what we ate actually led to varied and interesting meals than we would have had otherwise.
I know there were a lot of veggie bloggers giving Veganuary a try – let us know how you got on and what you would add to the list above!
Don’t you just love it when a recipe is as simple as ‘mix + bake’? No pre-cooking, no unnecessary extra steps – just mix together all of the ingredients, and pop it in the oven. And that’s just the case for these vegetarian lentil meatballs (lentil balls? vegeballs? meatlessballs?). They couldn’t be easier.
Other easy ‘mix and bake’ recipes → easy nut roast; baked fajita rice; Boursin pasta.
I served my lentil balls with spaghetti and tomato sauce – spaghetti and meatballs is such a classic that’s hard to improve on. If you prefer, you could equally serve these vegetarian meatballs with couscous and tzatziki, stuffed into pitta bread, or even just eaten straight from the oven (no judgment here). They’re packed with Mediterranean-inspired flavours, and they’re super versatile.
The basic recipe for these lentil meatballs is canned lentils + flour + egg (the same base I used for my cheesy lentil burgers). Once you’ve got that far, you can jazz things up however you like. I added:
If you like, you could easily switch things up to bring a different flavour profile to your meatballs – maybe you could make a Tex-Mex version, or use some Indian spices, for example.
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Here’s what you’ll need to make these vegetarian meatballs. See the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredient quantities.
You could certainly mix together the ingredients in advance, and then store the mixture in a sealed container in the fridge for a day or so, until you’re ready to shape and bake the balls. The meatballs are tastiest when freshly baked, but if needed, you could even bake them in advance, and then reheat when you’re ready to eat them.
I didn’t experiment with freezing these balls, but it’s the sort of recipe I have had luck with freezing in the past, so I definitely think it’s worth a try.
The easiest way to reheat these lentil meatballs is in the microwave. They do dry out a little and lose their crispiness when reheated, but they’re still tasty. Alternatively, you could re-crisp them in the oven or air fryer.
I served my meatballs with spaghetti and tomato sauce, which worked beautifully. You could alternatively serve them stuffed into pitta bread with some tzatziki, or alongside some mashed potato.
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