Easy Vegan Meatballs
featured review
"This is an amazing recipe. It will now be my go to recipe for spaghetti & meatballs. Very moist and flavorful!"
- CHRIS -
Whenever someone is hesitant to try eating more meatless meals, one of my favorite things to do is show them just how comforting and hearty plant-based eating can be. A plant-based diet is so much more than a bunch of salads. Plant-centered meals can be just as hearty and stick-to-your-ribs-y as meals with animal products. And this big ole plate of spaghetti and vegan meatballs is a perfect example of that. Let's make meat-free meatballs!
In this post:
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Move over traditional meatballs! These vegan meatballs are here to steal the show.
I worked for years to perfect a meatless meatball recipe that kept the ingredient list as short as possible, only used pantry staples, and was still hearty, meaty, and delicious. This is it, my friends! I know you're going to love it. Let me show you how easy vegan meatballs can be!
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- No specialty ingredients. These vegan meatballs are made using only ingredients that are regularly kept in my pantry. I'll bet you have most of them on hand, too!
- Gluten-free adaptable. As long as the oats you use are gluten-free, it only takes one simple swap of tamari in place of the soy sauce to make this recipe completely gluten-free.
- It's quick and easy. You can have these meat-free meatballs on the table in under 30 minutes!
One of my favorite ways to serve these is with spaghetti sauce or arrabbiata sauce and garlic bread! Add a side salad with Italian dressing and you've got yourself a fancy-feeling yet weeknight-friendly meal.
Step-by-Step how to make Vegan Meatballs
1
Pulse.
Put chickpeas, onion, walnuts, oats, and garlic in the food processor and pulse everything together until it looks like the texture of ground beef. It should still be coarse and chunky. You don't want to overmix it!
2
Mix.
Dump that meaty mixture into a large bowl and add the rice, ketchup, soy sauce, and seasoning. Then stir it up until it's well mixed.
If you want a smoother texture...
...add half the vegan meatball mixture back into the food processor, and pulse until very smooth. Add the pasty smooth mix back into the bowl with the coarse half and stir well to combine.
3
Cook.
Heat a few tablespoons of avocado oil (or another oil with a high smoke point) in a large skillet over medium heat. Then roll the meatball mixture into 1-inch balls and pan-fry them in the skillet until golden brown all over. Serve!
Vegan Meatballs protips
Want to save this recipe?
I'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
featured review
"These were AMAZING! Kids ate them too with no complaining!"
- ERIN -
WATCH Me make vegan meatballs
📖 Recipe
Vegan Meatballs
Ingredients
- 14 ounces chickpeas drained and rinsed
- ½ large onion roughly chopped (about ⅓ cup)
- ½ cup walnuts toasted is great, but not necessary
- ½ cup old-fashioned oats gluten-free, if necessary
- 1 clove garlic peeled
- 1 cup cooked brown rice wild rice is great, too
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce use coconut aminos or tamari if gluten-free
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- ½ teaspoon salt plus more to taste
- Additional spices if desired (see notes)
- Avocado oil or other high heat oil, for pan-frying
Instructions
- In the basin of a food processor, pulse together 14 ounces chickpeas, ½ large onion, ½ cup walnuts, ½ cup old-fashioned oats, and 1 clove garlic until it forms a coarse meal about the texture of ground beef. Don't overmix. You should still see a few small chunks.
- Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl, and add in 1 cup cooked brown rice, 2 tablespoons ketchup, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 teaspoons chili powder, ½ teaspoon salt, and any Additional spices you're using. Stir until well-mixed.
- If you like a meatball with smoother texture, transfer half of the mixture back into the food processor, and pulse until very smooth and pasty-add back to the other half of mixture and stir well to combine.
- Heat a couple of tablespoons of Avocado oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Form the meatball mixture into 1" balls and fry in skillet until golden brown on all sides-about 10 minutes total. Don't overcrowd the pan-you'll probably want to work in 2-3 batches.
Video
Notes
- This is great base recipe, but you can doctor these up with spices however you see fit-add two tablespoons of Italian seasoning plus two tablespoons of nutritional yeast for serving over pasta with tomato sauce. Add Montreal Steak Seasoning for great cocktail meatballs to serve as appetizers. The possibilities are endless!
- We use avocado oil instead of something like olive oil because the avocado oil has a higher smoke point and won't get smoky and burnt during pan-frying. You can also use grapeseed oil, safflower oil, or another high-heat oil.
- If your meatballs aren't holding together, feel free to add either an egg (if you're not vegan) or a flax egg (mix one tablespoon ground flaxseed meal with three tablespoons warm water and let thicken for five minutes) to the meatball mixture. I didn't find this necessary for my meatballs to stay together well.
- For an extra boost of flavor, cook your brown rice in veggie broth or even not-beef broth.
- If you want to skip pan-frying, you can just put the formed meatballs directly on the baking sheet and bake at 425°F for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown and firm.
- Add these meatballs to your saucepan right before serving. The longer they swim around in the sauce, the more tender they become.
I made these today and they are delicious! They even taste pretty good before cooking. I used Lindberg rice, the blend with whole grain brown rice and wild rice and I did add the flax egg for extra nutrition.
The unmeatballs held together quite well.
Now if I could just stop eating them before I get them on spaghetti for supper.
Thanks for sharing this great recipe.
Thanks for sharing your success with us, Rhonda! We're so glad you love them. They're fan favorites in our houses, too!
Wow. Amazing recipe. I would love to try this.
This is an amazing recipe. It will now be my go to recipe for spaghetti & meatballs. Very moist and flavorful!
We're so glad you like it, Chris! Thanks for taking the time to come back and tell us about it! =)
My husband loves this meatball recipe best of the many we’ve tried. One thing I’ve started doing due to being lazy aka busy with work and family, is to just spread the mix onto a baking pan and bake it as recommended. I then mix it into marinara sauce and make it ‘meat’ sauce instead of meatballs. Saves time and effort and is still as delicious!
What a great idea, Sarah! Thanks for sharing!
We still make this regularly, and the crumbles work great for baked ziti/lasagna, but sometimes I use quinoa or other ancient grain if I don’t have rice on hand or time to cook the rice, and for added protein. Works just fine with the substitute.
These were AMAZING! Kids ate them too with no complaining! My husband suggested to crumble them and put them in a lasagna, so we will try that next time! Thanks for the great recipe, it's a keeper!
Thanks, Erin! That's so wonderful to hear! We really appreciate you taking the time to let us know that it was a hit. If you try them crumbled in lasagna (which sounds amazing, btw!), please let us know how it turns out for you!
This turned out amazing!!
Both I and my husband loved it.
Thank you so much!
Oh, that's so great to hear! Glad you loved them!
Eating the meatballs now with brown gravy over mashed potatoes. Delish!!
I used left over brown rice re-hydrated with some homemade veggie broth and added 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning and 1 tsp smoked paprika and baked them, so it is a no oil recipe.
Thank you. If you had a rating system I would give this 5 stars!
So glad you liked it! We do have a rating system, by the way- it is the stars at the top of the recipe card!
I just made the vegan meatballs (Dec. 2018) and I can't believe how good and easy they are -- after 40 years as a vegetarian and an additional 10 as a vegan, raising kids, how come I wasted money buying veggie burgers when they can be made so easily from this recipe!!
I’ve been collecting vegan recipes for my next job. (18 omnivores and 1 vegan, 3 weeks over seas) My daughter and I tested this recipe as written and it was SUPER! Can’t wait to try the variations in spices.
These are delectable. My grandchildren, who are genuine, couldn't trust they could eat cheddar with their "meatballs.." We cherished the taste! Much obliged to you such a great amount for the formula.
Just a question: what’s the sauce you use...
Just a store-brand organic tomato basil pasta sauce. Any tomato sauce would work great!
These are fab. It's incredible to discover great veggie alternatives to add to my collection.
Can I freeze these?
Made this last night and they were a huge hit! Thanks 🙂 Will make again - so easy and a great base to play around with other flavour combinations
Can't wait to try this recipe. You mention that you can cook them in the oven, what temperature would you suggest? Thanks!
350° until they start to split on top—about 12-15 minutes in my oven. 🙂
Is there anything you could substitute for walnuts if you are allergic?
Are you allergic to all tree nuts? Because pecans would also work in a pinch. Otherwise, I'd just leave out the nuts and add an additional 1/4 cup of oats.
These are delicious. My grandkids, who are kosher, could not believe they were able to eat cheese with their “meatballs..” We loved the taste! Thank you so much for the recipe.