With a rich creamy tomato sauce, these Easy Vegan Meatballs make a delicious weeknight dinner. The Italian-spiced chickpea "meatballs" and al dente whole grain spaghetti is a perfect protein-rich meal that will leave everyone full. A classic dish, and one of our favourite American-Italian recipes!
📋 Recipe
Easy Vegan Meatballs
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
Vegan Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
- 200 grams (7 cups) stale bread
- 100 grams (3.5 oz) chickpea flour
- 200 ml (0.8 cups) plant milk soy, almond, oat
- 1 cloves (1 cloves) garlic
- 20 grams (0.7 oz) nutritional yeast
- 10 sprigs (10 sprigs) parsley
- 1 tsp (5 sprigs) thyme
- 50 grams (1.7 oz) sundried tomatoes
- 2 to 4 tbsp (1 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil
- salt, pepper
- 1 L (4.5 cups) tomato passata
- 10 leaves (10 leaves) basil
- 50 grams (1.7 oz) vegan parmesan cheese
Spaghetti
- 2 L (9 cups) boiling water
- 1 tbsp (1 tbsp) coarse sea salt
- 320 grams (11 oz) whole-wheat spaghetti
Instructions
Vegan Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
- In a bowl, break the stale bread into chunks, then soak it in the plant milk till fully absorbed.
- In a food processor, put fresh thyme, sun-dried tomatoes, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast and garlic. Blend for 1 min until granulated.
- Add the soaked pieces of bread to the food processor, blend for another 30 sec until you have a thick dough consistency.
- Add oil to a non-stick pan and start shaping the meatballs with your hands into the pan. Cook on medium heat while turning them till light brown.
- In the same pan, add passata to the meat balls and let simmer for 15 mins on low heat.
Spaghetti
- In a pot, bring water to boil and add coarse sea salt.
- Add spaghetti to the boiling water and let cook 1 minute less than indicated on the package.
- Drain spaghetti and, while draining, save 1 cup of pasta water for the tomato sauce.
- Mix spaghetti in the tomato-meatball sauce, add pasta water until you are happy with the consistency of the sauce. Let the pasta and the passata mingle for about one minute on medium heat while stirring.
- Serve on a plate and drizzle with homemade vegan parmesan and fresh basil leaves. Enjoy!
YouTube Video
Nutritional Values
🍜 Variations
The meatballs and sauce go well in a sub-sandwich or half a baguette if you want a meal on the go or you wanna bring it with you to school or work.
For a beautiful cheesy finish, serve the vegan meatballs with homemade vegan parmesan cheese with thyme.
To ensure that there is no waste of tomato sauce, serve the meatballs with slices of bread that can help clean the plate. Italians call this "fare la scarpetta" meaning "mop the plate" with bread and enjoying the final sauce leftovers. Use this easy no-knead bread recipe with your meatballs.
🥫 Storage
Store in an air tight glass container in the fridge for 2-3 days. Can be eaten hot or cold.
This recipe was adapted from polpette al sugo.
🍝 Related recipes
Will you be cooking these meatballs at home? Let us know in the comments below, we would love to hear about your cooking.
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