If you are looking for a healthy yet satisfying meatless Monday meal, I’ve got you covered! This recipe is fairly easy to put together and was highly adapted by Ahead Of Thyme.
Instead of using tahini for the sauce in this recipe like Ahead of Thyme did, I decided to make a vegan pesto sauce. I wanted this recipe to taste satisfying enough for those who are meat eaters (my husband and myself included) and the pesto is so flavorful with these meatballs that it does just the trick!
I also added in some spinach and nutritional yeast to the meatballs. Any time I can sneak in some spinach is a win for me and the nutritional yeast is great as a sub for parmeasan cheese but both of these ingredients are optional if you don’t want to add them in.
For the pesto, you’ll want to use fresh basil and you can choose to use whatever nuts you want, but I decided to use walnuts. And of course, a good pesto sauce always requires lots of garlic and extra virgin oil.
Vegan Pesto Sauce Recipe:
–Makes about 2 cups-
3 cups of fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast (optional)
1/4 cup of walnuts
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of pepper
2 or 3 garlic cloves
Squeeze of 1/2 a lemon
Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add more olive oil if desired. Pour over your favorite pasta or store in fridge for a week or so.
Now for the meatballs:
Quinoa Meatballs Recipe
-Makes about 30 Meatballs-
3 cups of cooked quinoa
2 cups of lightly steamed cauliflower
1 cup of breadcrumbs
1 cup of chickpeas, canned and rinsed
2 garlic cloves, chopped in half
1/2 shallot, chopped
2 eggs (flax egg if vegan)
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons of paprika
1/4 cup of frozen spinach (optional)
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast (optional)
Instructions:
-Preheat oven at 375 F.
-Add all ingredients to food processor except eggs and quinoa. Pulse until mixed well.
-Transfer Meatball mixture to bowl and add in cooked quinoa and egg. Make sure quinoa isn’t hot when adding so that you don’t “cook” the egg. Mix well together and form into meatballs. *Note: meatballs will be sticky, if too sticky let them sit in fridge or freezer for a few minutes.
-Transfer meatballs to a oven sheet sprayed with oil. Bake for 30-35 mins at 375 F.
-Enjoy with pasta and pesto sauce or a marinara sauce if you prefer.
Hope you all enjoyed this recipe! What are some of your favorite meatless Monday meals?
