There’s something extra tasty about balls for a meal – mushroom vegetarian meatballs that is, with a delicious marinara sauce and couscous.
I remember when I used to eat meat, I made the bet meatballs ever – herb’d and spiced to perfection and cooked in the tomato sauce. I used to make it for an older people’s Luncheon club and they went down amazingly well there too. Nowadays with being a veggie, I’m always trying to find my perfect vegetarian ‘meatball’ and these have to be pretty close if not the best so far. These vegetarian meat-free balls have a fantastic texture, hold together well even in sauce and smell absolutely divine! Jit had a few compliments in work with his leftovers in his lunchbox the next day.
They are not the quickest of things to make, but they don’t take too much and you can cook other bits of the dish while you’re baking your balls.
Mid-week Deliciousness
I love to make sure that we have a wide variety of meals in our weekly meal plans as it can be so easy to fall into bad habits of doing the same (or very similar) meals week in, week out. And that is when things get dull and boring and the temptation to veer off the plan comes in. To make sure things stay exciting, I look back over previous plans from the season and bring them back in, sometimes with a twist of a new experiment, others just as they were. It helps to bring back inspiration when ideas flounder.
We had the mushroom vegetarian meatballs for our mid-week dinner because I could use the food processor to do the hard work for me and then bung them in the oven while I prepped the rest of the stuff. I don’t always use kitchen gadgets (even though I have quite a few) but they can make life way easier when you’re in a hurry or just really hungry!
The key is to dry out the balls to make sure that you have maximum flavour and texture, as well as them holding together! It may take a while, but the effort s hugely paid back with the taste.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
280 g button mushrooms, finely chopped (I pop them into my food processor)
1 cup of oats
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 free-range eggs, whisked
1 jar of marinara sauce
400 g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 cup of dried couscous
2 cups of boiling water or stock
Vegetarian Parmesan and chopped fresh parsley for serving
Method:
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the onions,
Cook the onions, stirring to prevent sticking, for about 7 minutes until softened
Add the mushrooms and increase the heat slightly
Cook the mushrooms for about another 15 minutes stirring regularly, until there is no moisture left in the pan
Add the crushed garlic and stir through
Remove the mushroom and onion mix and add to a large bowl to cool slightly
Heat the oven to 175 C and line a baking tray (I use these)
Add the whisked egg, herbs, breadcrumbs and oats to the mushroom mixture and combine well
Using a 1 tablespoon measure, make the mixture into balls and place on the baking sheet
Once the mixture is all used up, place the baking sheet and balls into the middle of the oven for 15 minutes
While baking the veggie balls, return the frying pan to the heat and pour in the tin of tomatoes and Marinara sauce
Gently bring the sauce up to a boil stirring regularly, reduce to a low simmer until the balls are cooked
Once the balls are cooked, add them to the sauce and cover and simmer for around 15 minutes until piping hot
Meanwhile, add the dried couscous to a large bowl and cover with 2 cups of boiling water or stock
Cover and leave for 12 minutes, then fluff with a fork and divide between the bowls
Serve the mushroom balls and sauce over the couscous and give it a generous grating of vegetarian Parmesan
I personally think that even your most determined meat-eater would thoroughly enjoy these vegetarian mushroom meat-free balls!
Having written up the recipe for the Mushroom vegetarian meatballs with marinara sauce and couscous, I’m pretty convinced that these really are the best veggie meat-free ball about. If you’re veggie and you’ve been craving that satisfying ball, then you seriously have to give these a try! (even if I say so myself!!) Let me know what you think!
Looking forward to more veggie balls in my life
How do you like your balls? *sings chocolate salty balls* Do you like them with couscous or pasta?
What other foods so you like that you used to eat when you had meat? (I’ll get working on adding them to the blog!)
Let me know in the comments below!
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 280 g button mushrooms, finely chopped (I pop them into my food processor)
- 1 cup of oats
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2 free-range eggs, whisked
- 1 jar of marinara sauce
- 400 g tin of chopped tomatoes
- 1 cup of dried couscous
- 2 cups of boiling water or stock
- Vegetarian Parmesan and chopped fresh parsley for serving
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the onions,
- Cook the onions, stirring to prevent sticking, for about 7 minutes until softened
- Add the mushrooms and increase the heat slightly
- Cook the mushrooms for about another 15 minutes stirring regularly, until there is no moisture left in the pan
- Add the crushed garlic and stir through
- Remove the mushroom and onion mix and add to a large bowl to cool slightly
- Heat the oven to 175 C and line a baking tray (I use these)
- Add the whisked egg, herbs, breadcrumbs and oats to the mushroom mixture and combine well
- Using a 1 tablespoon measure, make the mixture into balls and place on the baking sheet
- Once the mixture is all used up, place the baking sheet and balls into the middle of the oven for 15 minutes
- While baking the veggie balls, return the frying pan to the heat and pour in the tin of tomatoes and Marinara sauce
- Gently bring the sauce up to a boil stirring regularly, reduce to a low simmer until the balls are cooked
- Once the balls are cooked, add them to the sauce and cover and simmer for around 15 minutes until piping hot
- Meanwhile, add the dried couscous to a large bowl and cover with 2 cups of boiling water or stock
- Cover and leave for 12 minutes, then fluff with a fork and divide between the bowls
- Serve the mushroom balls and sauce over the couscous and give it a generous grating of vegetarian Parmesan
2 comments
This looks delicious! I’m vegetarian and always looking for new recipes to try, so thanks! XX
It really is tasty, Emily! Take a look around my site, there are plenty of veggie and vegan recipes for you to get inspired by 🙂
Great to ‘meet’ another veggie too 🙂 Xx