vegeater.com

Spaghetti and Veg-Balls

April 25, 2010 – 9:33 am

Hubs and I got hungry for spaghetti. As a nutritionist, it irks me to only eat carbs in any one meal, so spaghetti with marinara sauce and vegetables, while tasty, just doesn’t cut it. Which is why I rarely make spaghetti — I can’t ever come up with a protein food I like to eat with it. I don’t eat much soy, and in the past I have tried making faux meatballs out of kidney beans, which is apparently the classic non-soy meatball replacement, but I find them dull.

So I decided to take the bean-balls to the next level. I took the classic kidney-bean-and-breadcrumb concept and zinged it up with artichoke hearts, oats, and Italian olive salad (a.k.a. muffaletta mix). Hubs and I thought they turned out great, much better than plain bean balls. Here’s what I did:

The What:
1/2 cup dried kidney beans, soaked, then cooked and drained
1 can, minus a few (just eat them, I did.), quartered artichoke hearts.
2 heaping tbsp Italian olive salad mix (the kind with olives and veggies, marinated in olive oil)
rolled oats
millet flour or other flour
oregano (maybe 1.5 tsp)
thyme (maybe 1/2 tsp)
salt and pepper to taste

The How:
Mash the kidney beans. Process the artichoke hearts and the olive salad in a food processor or chopper till finely chopped. Mix kidney beans, and artichoke/olive mix in a bowl. Add 1/4 rolled oats. Next, process 1/4 cup rolled oats in the food processor till finely ground (slightly coarser than flour). Mix all that up along with the spices and check the consistency. Add flour till the consistency feels kindof doughy and you’re able to roll it into soft walnut-sized balls. Grease a pan. Put the balls on the pan, giving each one a brief spray with oil. Bake at 375, 25 – 30 mins. You should watch them closely once they’ve been in about 20 minutes. They stay pretty soft on the inside, but should be nice and golden on the outside. Douse these babies in marinara and serve over whole wheat spaghetti.

If you make these, leave me a comment and tell me what you think. Happy Vegeating.