Munchie Monday: Veggie Meatball Bites

Always I seem to be looking for non-meat regular food, like meatballs and burgers.  I feel sure that somewhere there are good recipes where we can make them.

Here is a recipe which started out at Cooking With Plants.

Meatless Meatballs (Veggie Bites if you make them flat instead of round, which is what I wanted)

6 slice bread, pulverized in a food processor
2 cups walnuts added to the bread crumbs and pulsed until finely chopped
1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal flakes
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning or plain ground sage
2 teaspoons dried cilantro (which I used by mistake, I was reaching for the basil but picked up the cilantro instead and did not notice....)
 1 Tablespoon Better Than Bouillon vegetable stock mixture
 1 can black beans, NOT drained
1/4 cup soy sauce



After turning the bread and walnuts into crumbs in a food processor, add all the remaining dry ingredients and pulse to combine.  When they are happily mixed, dump in the beans, including liquid in the can,  and soy sauce (you can use tamari or Braggs Liquid Aminos if you want instead of the soy sauce) and pulse to make a mushed up combination.

Using a 2-Tablespoon portion scoop put the mixture on a parchment-lined baking sheet (or if you have a high tolerance for stuck-on food, just lightly grease the pan and forget about the parchment paper.  I have a very LOW tolerance for food items sticking to the pan so I always go with the parchment paper...).  Use nice even rows  (this helps the food cook more evenly, plus you can take a quick count more easily) of the plopped-on mixture then go back and with clean damp fingers  and press down the veggie bite mixture a little bit to slightly flatten the balls.


Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven, turn the bites over, and bake another 15-20 minutes.  I wanted these to be baked enough that they were sort of crisp and could be picked up and used with French onion dip.  Well, they were not crisp, but they were firm enough to be finger food.  Score! 

These did work just as I had hoped AND they tasted good to boot!  I was so pleased when a lady at the Relief Society Birthday Party where I was going to serve these, asked if she could take some of them home.  OF COURSE SHE COULD!  I did not want to take any of them home because they were such a temptation to eat myself. 

A bonus with the lady's request was that I gave her the beautiful glass bowls I had used to serve the dip and veggie bites it.  Two more things gone from our house.  It is hard to empty out a house when your general modus operandi is to collect things, not dispose of them. Yes, I did particularly love these bowls but we do not need them. I am glad they have gone to a good home.