Serve these crowd pleasing vegan meatballs at your next event or gathering! These are sure to impress all your guests, even your most carnivorous friends and family. Use with your favourite noodles, or pop a toothpick in each one and serve with a dip.
How to make vegan meatballs
Precook your lentils and saute your veggies ahead of time if you wish. These can stay refrigerated for a couple days prior to use.
Since I’m a fan of meal prep, I often have precooked lentils in my fridge ready to go, saving me this step. But if you don’t, and you’re in a hurry, feel free to sub for canned lentils at an equal ratio instead.
Next, add all your ingredients to a food processor to combine your “meat” ball mixture. Do not over process, you don’t want a completely pureed mixture, or your meatballs will not hold as well. Plus, some chunkiness just adds to the delicious factor.
Once combined, you will form your mixture into balls.
TIP: Use slightly wet hands! This prevents the mixture from sticking to your hands and allows you to easily form lovely smoother meatballs. Re-wet your hands after forming every few meatballs or so.
Once all your balls are formed, bake your meatballs until crispy on the outside and beautifully golden, but soft in the middle. This will take about 30-35 minutes.
Serve these meatballs with sweet potato noodles, or noodles of choice. Or just stick a toothpick in each one, and use as a delicious hors d’oeuvres for your next function.
How long do they keep?
These lentil meatballs taste best when freshly made, but leftovers keep refrigerated for about 3-4 days. Just reheat in the oven, or break them up and warm them in a skillet with noodles for a bolognese type dish.
More delicious appetizers
- Cauliflower Buffalo Wings – Air Fryer Option
- Easy Vegan Nachos
- Sweet & Spicy Baked Plantain Chips
- 3 Minute Easy Guacamole
- Sweet & Spicy Mango Salsa
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp avocado oil or sauté in water if avoiding oil
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 1 carrot peeled & chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups cooked green or brown lentils
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tbsp basil chopped
- 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup pumpkin seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a large tray with parchment paper.
- Add oil, onion and carrot to a skillet, and sauté approx 5-7 minutes, until softened. Then add the garlic and sauté 30 seconds, or until fragrant.
- Add the cooked vegetables, and all remaining ingredients except the pumpkin seeds to your food processor and pulse until well combined.
- Next, add the pumpkin seeds and continue pulsing until nicely crumbled, without over processing. Taste the mixture, and add more salt if needed.
- Form the mixture into small balls (approx 1-1.5" diameter) and place them on prepared baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before handling.
- Serve with sweet potato noodles, or noodles of your choice! These also make great appetizers. Just put them in a tray and stick a toothpick in each one, voila!
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