Vegan Chickpea “Meatballs”

Chickpeas have become an indispensable part of vegan and vegetarian diet. For this easy vegan chickpea “meatballs” recipe we will use chickpeas, rice, herbs and an onion. This recipe is very easy to prepare and delicious.

What Are Chickpeas and How Do You Eat Them?

Chickpeas are a type of legume in the Fabaceae family of plants. Bengal Gram, Garbanzo Seeds, and Egyptian Pea are some of the other names for them. They are widely grown in India and the Middle East. Chickpeas are used in a variety of dishes, including soups, salads, and curries.

Are Chickpeas Healthy ?

Chickpea seeds’ relevance in the health industry is well-known. Chickpeas are high in nutritional value and are regarded one of the best vegetarian protein sources. It also lowers cholesterol levels, which helps to prevent cardiovascular disease. Chickpeas are also high in antioxidants, which can help protect you from a variety of ailments, including cancer.

You can find here an another DELICIOUS chickpea recipe.

Let`s start to prepare our vegan chickpea “meatballs”.

Ingredients

• 400 gr canned chickpeas
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 200 gr cooked rice
• 5-6 tablespoons olive oil or sunflower oil
• 1/2 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon chili flakes (you may add more or less)
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon salt

Besides these spices we need 2 cloves garlic (grated) and 2 teaspoons of peanut butter. We use the peanut butter as binder in our vegan chickpea “meatballs”.

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 170 Celsius (340 Fahrenheit). Sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes.

2. Transfer the onion, garlic, spices, peanut butter and chickpeas into a food processor and mix. If you do not have a food processor, you can use hand mixer. Before you use the hand mixer, place the chickpeas into a big salad bowl and use a potato masher, rough-mash the chickpeas until most is smashed.

Don’t overdo it or your “meatballs” will be mushy in the middle!

The mixture should look like this:

3. Add the cooked rice to the mixture.

4. Roll your chickpea balls and place them on a baking sheet.

5. Bake them for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

In the meantime we can start to prepare our sauce.

Our vegan chickpea meatballs are ready. You can enjoy them with different sauces. As I have taken this recipe from Tinned Tomatoes, I would like top follow same steps.

For this recipe we will prepare fresh marinara sauce.

How to make marinara sauce?

Ingredients

• 400 gr organic canned tomatoes.
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon oregano. You can use fresh oregano,too.
• 5-6 tablespoons olive oil.
• 2 cloves garlic, finely grated.
• Salt and pepper.

Preparation

1. Sauté the onion with garlic in olive oil over medium heat until it softens.

2. Add organic canned tomatoes, salt and tomatoes and cook for about 15-20 minutes.

3. When the sauce is done, puree it before you serve it.

That’s it.

Our vegan chickpea “meatballs” are ready to serve and enjoy. You can serve it with rice and your favourite salad.

Did you make this recipe?

Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #the_vegetarian_hannibal