Easy Vegan Meatballs
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"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
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.
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions about Vegan Meatballs
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I made these last night! I fried a few and baked the rest. The fried ones tasted really good haha, the baked ones seemed to dry out a bit. I used white rice, because I didn't have brown - not sure if that maybe made a difference. Either way, I just crumbled them and put them into a pasta sauce. They're delicious! Next time I'll most likely omit the chili powder and add a flax egg. But DEFINITELY will be making them again!
Just a question: what's the sauce you use? (And its toppings.)
I use just a store-brand organic tomato basil pasta sauce. And the toppings are parsley and Vegan Parmesan Cheese (recipe here: https://wholefully.com/vegan-stuffed-shells/
Would this recipe work without the rice?
I don't think they would hold together well without the rice. You could maybe try using another grain, but I haven't tried it, so I'm not sure.
These are fab. It’s great to find tasty veggie options to add to my repertoire.
Made these for the first time 1/10/2017. Delicious. Held together well and very tasty. I used a hot chilli powder for a nice kick
hey cassie!
these look delicious! do you happen to know the nutrition facts of this receipe? i'm jump starting a healthy kick and want to try to keep track of my intake.
thank you!
There are lots of great calorie calculators out there that you can use!
My husband will love these for lunch, or watching the game!...
i am just learning different ways to make meatballs and definitely adding this...they are so versatile and love the fact that they can be made ahead of time.
Hey Cassie, I just read your note about the recent recipes being inspired by your familiy's choice to go meatless and dairy free. I've been excited by a couple of the recipes and meh on others, which is fine, to each their own right, and I recognize the content is super high quality.
I'm curious though, is the plan going forward to have every recipe follow this model?
Right now, we aren't eating meat or dairy, but honestly, I hate to make sweeping declarations and say every post going forward will be meatless and dairy-free forever.
This is what is good for us now, but that might change next year or even next week. I've always followed a flexitarian diet—we're just "flexing" a little more toward plant-based at the time (and feeling awesome because of it).
I will say that, for the next three months on my editorial calendar, all my new posts are meatless and/or dairy-free. I hope you'll stick around! I promise, there will be plenty of awesome, relevant content regardless of if you're an omnivore or herbivore. 🙂
Wow! This looks great! I love the idea of using chickpeas!
www.melodramaticadventures.com
Definitely going to give these a go, they sound super delicious! Would really love to know what you put in your sauce?
Honestly? It's usually just the jarred stuff! 🙂
Love all the plant based options lately. I'll try them in my next batch cooking session - and you're right,, all the stuff is already in my pantry. Thanks!!!
Oooh, I'm going to try these tomorrow!
Hi- excited to try these! Can you sub quinoa for the rice?
Do you think they would work without the walnuts, or would I need to substitute? I'm crazy allergic to nuts, so the recipe as-is is not going to work for me.
These balls looks delicious , btw ,I didn't see lentils in the ingredients list only chick peas . is it the same thing over in usa? ( sorry for silly question )
Lentils were in the older version of the recipe, but they aren't in the updated one - they were replaced with the chickpeas!
I have made them and I was very pleased with the taste . I have also add them to my blog with link to Wholefully xx
lhttps://laura-bigsby.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/april-favorites.htm
I've bought trader joe's meatballs forever, glad to finally have something I can make at home!
Gave this a try - it was ok but not really that great. Texture isn't good (more like a dense cookie) and IMO doesn't go well with bread or pasta. I hate the taste of VWG that's in most other recipes I've tried, so this at least didn't make me want to throw up, but I wouldn't make it again.
I hope you'll try the updated version of this recipe! 🙂
This recipe was quick,easy and delicious! My family and I just enjoyed eating some. The only major change I made was to chop one onion,two cloves of garlic, one stick of celery, and some fresh parsley in my food processor first before adding the other ingredients. Due to the high salt content and lack of genuine flavor, I don't use onion or garlic powder. Thanks for this user friendly, fantastic recipe. It's definitely worth saving.
Hi, are the lentils, rice etc measured dry or cooked? If cooked, can you advise regarding the precooked volume?
Thanks 🙂