Gluten Free Vegan “Meat” Balls

Today’s new recipe was one I was really nervous about, but it was a hit! I tweaked my usual turkey meatball recipe completely and made a vegan version with essentially none of the same ingredients except Italian seasoning and the same cooking method.

For the “meat” portion, I used @beyondmeat for the first time and the science behind that must be crazy because although it didn’t feel like meat, it tasted like it!

For my binding, I used @bobsredmill flax (3 tbsp flax & 9 tbsp warm water) and @traderjoes rice crumbs. For seasoning, I used some Italian seasoning and some @bragg nutritional yeast.

I combined the “meat” with the crumbs, seasonings and flax mix by hand and then rolled them into balls. Then browned them in a pan with a touch of olive oil on 3 sides. Then popped them in the oven at 350 for roughly 25 minutes. I allowed them to rest for a bit while I cooked the sauce. Then I added the hot sauce to the baking dish and baked these for an additional 25ish minutes to warm them up and thicken the sauce.

The sauce was a combination of one can diced tomatoes, one can tomato sauce, two of my tomato paste cubes (made during last year’s #50NewGFRecipesIn2020 challenge), a tablespoon of olive oil and maybe a tablespoon of Italian seasoning.

All-in-all, being part Italian paid off because people couldn’t tell these were #glutenfree or #vegan so I’m calling it a success! Definitely would make again and use the Beyond meat as my go-to meat substitute.