Easy & Delicious Vegan Meatballs In Under 30 Minutes
These meatballs with fresh tomato sauce are made with king oyster mushrooms, maitake mushrooms and a complimentary vegan fish sauce. It's deliciously easy and perfect for family-style meals.
Equipment
- 2 frying pans nonstick would be ideal for the meatballs, and stainless steel would be ok for the sauce
- 1 Food Processor
- 1 Spatula
- 1 stainless steel plate
- 1 large chopping board
- 1 chefs knife
Ingredients
Vegan Meatballs
- 1/2 cup rice cooked and cooled
- 35 grams king oyster mushrooms chopped
- 60 grams maitake mushrooms chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp vegan fish sauce Find it here
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
Meatball Sauce (herby tomato sauce)
- 9 cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup strained tomatoes
- 2 shallots
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1/2 tsp basil
- 1/2 tsp parsley
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp vegan fish sauce Find it here
- 1/4 tsp red chilli flakes
- salt to taste (you may not need it because of the salt in the vegan fish sauce)
Instructions
Vegan Meatballs
- Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs in the food processor. It should be a smooth dough-like consistency that is easily moldable into sphere shapes. If it is too runny or too thick, see my notes.
- Shape this up into 4 spheres. You could say 4cm in diameter.
- Using the nonstick frying pan, brush a very thin layer of sesame oil on the top and let that heat up.
- Fry the spheres until they turn golden and crisp up. Set this aside.
Meatball Sauce
- Using the other nonstick frying pan, add 1 tbsp of olive oil
- Add the onions and sauté for a few minutes until they turn translucent
- Sprinkle in the garlic and mix it in
- Add the cherry tomatoes, and let that sweat until it slightly dries up
- Pour in the strained tomatoes, and mix in all the herbs. Let this reach a bubbling simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Take it off the heat, mix in the vegan fish sauce and chilli flakes.
To Serve
- Heat up a cast iron skillet
- Coat the bottom with a generous layer of the sauce
- Add the meatballs
- Garnish more sauce over the meatballs before serving
- Serve warm
Notes
I've added all of the mushrooms in a food processor with the rice and seasoning to make it a thick dough-like batter. If in any case it happens to be watery, you may need to add a little more rice or mushrooms to the mixture.
To avoid the mixture from getting too wet, you need to ensure the mushrooms are fully dried after cleaning them. This avoids the extra water being added to the mixture. Additionally, you need to use cooked and cooled rice for this in order to get that perfect texture. You cannot use rice that has just been cooked.
I've added 1 tsp of vegan fish sauce to the meatball recipe, you can add another if you think it needs more flavour or if the mixture is too thick after you run it through the food processor.