My good friend Crystal invited me over for dinner a while ago and she made these awesome meatless meatballs made with walnuts. I was super impressed and asked for the recipe.
I’ve made these balls twice now, keeping the ball recipe the same but making the sauce a little bit different. These serve well with sautéed green beans (I sautéed my last batch with shallots and sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil (super tasty!). I like to cook the white rice with a tablespoon of coconut oil for a hit of flavour.
The first time I made the balls I made the sauce with mushrooms and swiss chard. I made the mushroom sauce with a roux, starting with butter, flour and milk. I seasoned it simply with salt & pepper and a dash of cayenne. A sprinkling of shredded mozzarella and parmesan or grana padano cheese brought it all together.
The second time I made the balls I didn’t add the greens to the sauce, keeping it simple again with a kick of graduated garlic and salt. I added half and half cream to the sautéed mushrooms, and to thicken it up a bit I added a tablespoon of flour to a small amount of cream, mixed it together and added it to the sauce to thicken it up a bit. I sprinkled with shredded mozzarella before baking.
Meatless Meatballs
Makes 6 servings
Ingredients
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup ground walnuts (I buy whole walnuts and put them in the blender)
2 cups cracker or bread crumbs (half bread crumbs and half Ritz cracker crumbs is tasty!)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sage
6 eggs, well beaten
3 cups mushroom sauce or tomato sauce
Instructions
Mix all ingredients together. Form into small or medium sized balls, depending on your preference. Fry in a cast iron or non-stick pan in a bit of vegetable or avocado oil until golden brown on all sides. From here, make whatever sauce you prefer – you can use a tomato based pasta sauce, mushroom soup, or a homemade mushroom sauce.
Here’s how I did it:
Remove the balls from the pan, turn down the heat a bit and sauté the mushrooms (and swiss chard or spinach) in a bit of oil and season them as you’d like. Add a couple cups of cream to the mushrooms. Mix a tablespoon of flour with a small amount of cream in a small bowl. Mix the flour mixture with the mushroom mixture and let simmer to thicken. Season to your preference – add garlic powder, cayenne, pepper, etc.
If your frying pan is oven-proof, put the balls back into the pan and drizzle with some of the cream sauce and sprinkle with cheese. If your frying pan isn’t oven-proof, put the balls and the sauce in a glass dish and sprinkle with cheese. Cover (oops, I forgot to cover mine!) and bake the balls at 350F for 30 mins.
Notes
Serve with rice and green beans.
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