I have to admit that I’ve always had a soft spot for store-bought meatless vegan meatballs. The kind that are made of isolated-soy-something-or-other, but have the most amazing chewy texture and savory flavor. I reserve those for an occasional treat, but honestly, I crave them a lot more often than that. Unfortunately, my experience with homemade vegan meatballs in the past has been that they taste nice on their own, but disintegrate in sauce. Even worse is if you end up with meatless meatballs that are mushy inside. Meh.
Thankfully, after a lot of tinkering around in the kitchen, I’ve come up with a vegan meatball recipe that is worthy of sauce, and completely rivals those vegetarian meatballs in the freezer aisle. Plus, instead of paying $5 for like 3 servings of meatballs, this recipe makes several dozen for only a couple dollars’ worth of ingredients.
The first thing I wanted to achieve in these vegan meatballs is a chewy texture with structural integrity. You should be able to use them anywhere non-vegan meatballs are used, which means that they have to stay together in a sauce. For both chewiness and binding power, I turned to vital wheat gluten. Vital wheat gluten is a flour made by washing away the starches from wheat until only the protein is left.
Sometimes gluten-based vegan meat alternatives get a little too bread-like in texture. But if this vegan meatball was going to behave like a classic meatball, I needed the gluten structure to give away to a moist, tender interior. For that reason, I decided to add chickpeas to the mixture. The already-cooked chickpeas don’t absorb any further moisture during baking, so they help the inside of the vegan meatballs stay moist.
The second thing I set out to accomplish in making these vegan meatballs resemble the real thing is an ever-so-slightly chunky interior, to mimic the behavior of cooked ground meat. There are two features of the recipe that make this happen: the first is the use of ground nuts, which have a bite to them, but soften just enough after cooking that they’re still tender. The second thing is the way that the vegan meatball mixture is combined. The other dry ingredients are pulsed together, but not completely pureed, and the gluten is mixed in in two stages. This allows the gluten to form around little pockets of the other ingredients, so that instead of having a uniform texture throughout the inside of the meatball, there’s some textural variation.
Serve with marinara sauce, teriyaki sauce, or anything else you like!
I’ve gotta say, I’m completely in love with this recipe. These vegan meatballs have been fantastic simmered in classic red sauce, teriyaki sauce, or just eaten on their own with a little ketchup for a lazy dinner. I don’t monitor my protein intake, but for those of you who do, these things are packed with protein thanks to the gluten (which is pretty much pure protein), chickpeas, and nuts. They are also whole foods, plant-based compatible due to being completely oil- and sugar-free. Take your meatless meatballs to the next level and give this recipe a try!
Vegan Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (rinsed and drained; equal to 1 15-oz can)
- 1/2 cup raw almonds
- 1/4 cup raw walnuts
- 1/4 cup raw cashews (feel free to mix and match the three types of nuts)
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp prepared mustard
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional but recommended)
- 1 tsp paprika (or smoked paprika)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 and 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten flour divided
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 and 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
Instructions
To prepare the vegan meatballs:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a food processor, add all of the ingredients from chickpeas through black pepper. Pulse until the nuts are broken into very small pieces (but do NOT puree completely). Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl.
- Add 1/2 cup of the gluten flour, and use a fork to stir it into the dry mixture. It's fine if there are small lumps.
- Add the other 1 cup of gluten flour and stir again (doing this in batches helps the mixture to retain texture during cooking). Pour the vegetable broth and soy sauce into the bowl and stir until no pockets of dry flour remain.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat liner, and spray it or lightly grease it with oil. Use a round shaped half tablespoon measure to scoop heaping half tablespoons of the mixture onto the baking sheet. The batter is fairly wet and spongy, so it will probably not be possible to roll the mixture into a ball, which is why I use a round-shaped scoop and let the bottom of the vegan meatballs be flat.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until firm enough to flip over. Flip over all of the meatballs and turn around the baking tray for even cooking, then return to the oven.
- Bake for about 15 more minutes, or until the outside is very browned and quite crunchy (the insides of the meatballs should still have a little give to them when you press down).
For cooking the vegan meatballs in a sauce:
- Bring your sauce up to a simmer, and then add the meatless meatballs directly to the sauce. These are quite absorbent, so adjust your seasoning accordingly if using a classically salty/reduced sauce (such as teriyaki).
- Simmer for just 1-2 minutes for more intense sauces (such as teriyaki), or longer for other sauces like marinara; you can always test one to see if it's absorbed the sauce to your liking! The crunchy outsides will soften when cooked with liquid but the balls will hold their shape.
Recipe Notes
Unfortunately, there is no way to make this recipe gluten-free, since the gluten flour is so important to the structure and texture.
Bob's Red Mill brand (linked in the ingredients list and blog post) is by FAR my most recommended brand of vital wheat gluten flour. In my opinion the combination of price and quality is the best; however, other brands such as Arrowhead Mills should still work for the recipe.
The reason I call for raw nuts is that toasted nuts can have an overpowering flavor. If you can only find toasted nuts then I recommend mixing and matching (as opposed to using only 1 type) so that no 1 flavor overpowers the others. In addition to almonds, walnuts, and cashews, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds (mix in after pulsing the rest of the mixture in the blender), and brazil nuts (roughly chop before measuring) can also make nice additions to these vegan meatballs.
These vegan (non)meatballs from Sparkpeople served as a starting point for my recipe.
I'm Shannon, the writer and photographer of Yup, it's Vegan! I'm a morning person based in Baltimore, USA. My mission is to create healthy plant-based recipes that anyone would enjoy, using seasonal produce with inspiration from global flavors.
KATRINA says
I made these tonight. 10/10 excellent recipe made to my liking ,i only used almonds and cashews ,no onion ,cooked on pan in oven and had with salad. kept it simple .
Sabrina says
I actually used vegan oat flour (literally just put dry oats in a blender to make flour) and this recipe turned out amazing. These are by far my absolute favorite meatball recipe. Thank you!!!
Cathy says
If serving as a side dish with marinara sauce, would you recommend just serving the sauce on the side, vs. simmering them in sauce? Would the texture be better?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
I would recommend simmering them in the sauce for a few minutes to absorb some of the flavor and get a little more tender.
Doug Zabor says
I suggest you process the almonds (I was using whole) first. Since they are harder, all other nuts were turning to paste before almonds were in consistent event little bits. The balls had half of a whole almond sticking out.
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Thanks for that tip!
Doug Zabor says
Yes they do. We put them in a soup, bubbling, for at leat 30 minutes or more and they held up, you could pick it out and cut in half and it would still hold up. Full of soup flavor.
Karen says
I made this recipe with some minor adjustments and it was excellent!
Next time I want to try adding some sort of oil to the mix, possibly coconut oil.
I baked 8 meatballs and they were dry, they reminded me of dense German bread.
For the rest of the meatballs, I will deep fry or simmer them in a sauce, and hopefully, they will be a bit more succulent.
Thank you for the recipe!
Ingredients for reference:
1 and 1/2 cups cooked black chickpeas
1/2 cup raw walnuts
1/2 cup raw macadamia nuts
1/2 medium onion diced
2 cloves garlic pressed
1 tsp mustard powder
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ancho chili powder
1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 and 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
1 tsp soy sauce
1 and 1/2 cups water reserved from cooking the chickpeas
1 tbsp miso paste
Tara says
I’m so excited to try these! I’m going to sub drained lentils because I’m on a crazy protein kick lately. If I want to cook them in sauce, do i skip baking them entirely, or should i put the baked meatballs in the sauce?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
You should bake the meatballs and then simmer them in the sauce to warm them up- they won’t cook through if cooked in sauce only.
Jessica says
I just made these meatballs and they were awesome! Thanks so much for the recipe. The can of chickpeas I got was slightly smaller than what the recipe called for, so I added cooked brown lentils to compensate. They turned out excellent. I tried putting them in the crockpot for a sweet and sour meatball dish, and I probably wouldn’t do that again. I think the prolonged wet cooking made them more susceptible to falling apart. Tried cooking the next batch in a pan with sauce, and that was way better. Thanks again, I’ll definitely make these again!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Thank you, Jessica, for the comment and your feedback on best ways to use these vegan meatballs!
Andrea Kavanagh says
I am completely new to vegan cooking and am excited to try making these. Unfortunatly my daughter is allergic to tree nuts so I was wondering if you can you recommend what I can use as a substitute for tree nuts? In the recipe you mention hemp seeds and sunflower, but I wasn’t clear if I could omit all the other nuts and just use those. What do you think?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Andrea, so, I tested a version of these using only sunflower seeds, in substitute for all of the nuts. They still cooked up well. They did have a bit of a sunflower seed flavor though. I’d recommend using a combination of sunflower, hemp, pepitas, etc. and substitute for all of the nuts. Anything raw if possible (to minimize any strong flavor) and a mixture helps because then there’s not too much flavor from one type of seed. They are there for texture. Hope this helps!
Emma Spengler says
This was really spectacular! I’ve been vegetarian for many years, recently vegan a journey on which my meat eating boyfriend joined me on about 3 months ago. Tonight when I asked him what he feels like for dinner he said a steak…..I asked him why and he said he doesn’t feel like mushy vegetables and that he missed the TEXTURE of meat (I think all plant based eaters can relate). So when I came across this recipe, from the comments on the recipe I thought this might just do the trick. But this recipe wasn’t as good as they say….it was spectacular. Completely satisfied Bae’s craving for something to bite into. I was soooo impressed with the nomeatballs and will definitely make it again! Delicious and hit all the right texture and flavor notes. Thank you to yupitsvegan, spectacular recipe.
Marsha says
Si I just realized we have no chickpeas in the house right now! Have you made these with another been? Would yellow split peas work?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
I think it might be a little more mushy with some cooked legume other than chickpeas, but probably it would still work. I have not tried this substitution though. Let me know how it goes!
Lawrence Salemme says
Made these to sell vegan spaghetti and meatballs at a pop up market I do. It was a GREAT hit, I forwarded the recipe to those with the time to make em 🙂
The only change I made was that I sauteed them in a cast iron before going into the oven for some deeper flavor.
When they sat in a tomato sauce for longer than an hour, the nuts on the outside did fall off the edges of the meatballs, but added a nice texture to the sauce.
Thank you!!!
Juliette says
Great recipe. Can I use pine nuts for this recipe?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Pine nuts sounds like a nice addition/substitution!
Marie says
I tried these last night for dinner (was making spaghetti and meatballs), and honestly I am quite disappointed at the lack of flavour in these.
I made the recipe exactly as written and these are the most bland food I’ve eaten (no I don’t like spicy food at all).
They held up well and the recipe was very easy, but I’m not sure how the rave reviews happened, these had no taste at all and even the texture wasn’t very good.
Am I missing something?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Marie, Thanks for your feedback. These aren’t really supposed to be super flavorful on their own, they are best for use as a component in dishes. They should also be seasoned according to your personal taste just like you would do if you were making meatballs out of meat. Hope this helps.