Hello Friends.. Wish you a very happy new year.. This one is my first post in the new year. Looking forward to doing some more interesting recipes in the coming times..
There are few days, when you want to have a quick handy dinner like a sandwich or a burger…. This dish is inspired from the same concept. I usually pick up a meatball sandwich from Subway whenever we are travelling. Thats’s my favorite.. It’s chunky, mouth melting and juicy… So, I thought why not do a similar thing in a vegetarian style. I am sure you would love it.
The vegetarian meatballs are made up of grilled eggplant, chick peas, cream cheese, parmesan cheese and spices. Some thing like a ‘Baigan ka Bharta ‘ meatball. I grilled (actually broiled) the eggplant in oven and baked the vegetarian meatballs in oven too. No big use of butter or oil :-). The roasted tomato sauce makes it taste even more juicy and delicious.
These vegetarian balls are soft and mouth melting just like the actual 'meat' balls.
My hubby enjoyed the quick handy meatball dinner. He loved the flavor of meatballs and the sauce.
Don’t you wanna try it? I know it’s a 'Yes'. Here’s the recipe.
Ingredients:
For the vegetarian meatballs:
1 medium sized eggplant (in Hindi known as bharte wala baigan)
Little olive oil to brush eggplant and tomatoes while roasting in oven.
1 and 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas with all water drained out and mashed up roughly (chickpeas boiled earlier with water, salt, turmeric, asafoetida and little dry mango powder).
1 package 8 ounce cream cheese (You can use mozzarella cheese if you like) (Reduce the quantity of cheese to 1/2 cup if you wish to cut down).
3 tsp grated parmesan cheese. (If you like you can avoid using cream cheese in earlier step and can use parmesan cheese only)
2 cloves of garlic finely minced
5-6 fresh basil leaves (can use dried too)
4-5 finely chopped green chillies
1 cup finely chopped fresh coriander
1 tsp dried red chili flakes
bread crumbs (1 cup)
corn flour (if the dough becomes too runny) .
salt as per taste
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
For roasted tomato sauce:
5 medium sized juicy red tomatoes.
1 tsp red chilli paste (can add more based on your preference)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (red chilli powder) (optional)
1 tsp dried oregano ( if you have fresh oregano, add a tsp of it along with dried oregano). I added dried ones as I didn't have fresh oregano available.
5-6 fresh basil leaves roughly chopped (used dried if not available),
Salt as per taste
Sugar 2 tsp, or more as per taste
1 tsp of corn starch
1 tsp butter/or olive oil
Procedure:
Let’s start the preparation to grill eggplant and tomatoes :
(Note: I roasted the eggplant and tomatoes in oven . You can do it directly on flame like you do while making baigan ka bharta.)
Preheat the oven to 450 deg F in broil or grill mode. Line the baking sheet with aluminum foil and place the eggplant and tomatoes on top.
Pinch the eggplant and tomatoes on all sides with a fork.
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| Eggplant ready to be grilled |
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| Tomatoes ready to be grilled. |
Brush the surface of vegetables with olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of salt over it.
Roast/Cook the eggplant until the skin of eggplant becomes completely loose and wrinkled. Turn the sides in between once the surface is cooked on one side.
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| In the middle of the grilling process.. |
It can usually take around 40-50 minutes.
Let eggplant and tomatoes cool down for a while. We will use tomatoes for prepares sauce.
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| Grilled/Broiled eggplant and tomatoes |
Let’s start preparing our meatball stuffing first:
Slice the eggplant into half vertically. Remove the skin gently and scoop out the inside meat. Roughly try to mash it with hands.. Remove seeds if you don't like it, but it hardly makes a difference when the meat ball is cooked.) Drain out water from the mixture, if any.
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| Peeling the skin off |
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| Grilled eggplant mixture (Bharta mixture) |
Transfer the eggplant mixture to a big bowl. Add mashed chickpeas, garlic, green chillies, coriander, basil, cream cheese, parmesan cheese, red chilli flakes, ginger powder, salt and black pepper. Stir everything well.
Add bread crumbs and mix everything well. See if the mixture is not too runny to form small balls. If so, add more bread crumbs. You can also add cornflour little by little to adjust the consistency. (Note: I added a little more mashed chick peas and corn flour at the end to adjust the consistency).
Taste the mixture well at this moment. Add more spices if required.
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| Red chilli flakes |
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| Room temperature cream cheese |
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| Parmesan cheese |
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| Breadcrumbs |
Line in a baking sheet with a parchment paper. Take some oil in palm and form small tennis balls sized veggie meat balls.
Brush the surface of balls with olive oil before baking.
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| Vegetarian meatballs ready to be baked |
Preheat the oven to 375 deg F. Let the meat balls bake for around 20 minutes. After 10 minutes of baking, alter the sides of the meatballs. Bake until the meatballs have turned golden brown on all sides.
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| Vegetarian meatballs baked and out of the oven |
While the meatballs are baking you can start preparing the roasted tomato sauce.
Let’s start preparing our roasted tomato sauce:
Peel of the skin off the tomatoes gently. Blend them in a mixer. Transfer the puree to a bowl.
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| Roasted/Oven broiled tomatoes. Skin yet to be peeled.. |
Add red chilli paste, red cayenne pepper, oregano, fresh basil leaves, salt and fresh ground black pepper as per taste.
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| Red chilli paste |
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| Sugar |
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| Salt |
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| Red chilli powder |
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| Dried Oregano |
Heat a non stick pan. Add little butter/oil. Transfer the tomato puree in the pan. Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Add cornflour, stir it well. Let it simmer for 2 more minutes.
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| Tomato sauce ready |
Transfer the meatballs in the sauce. Let things get incorporated well, and cook together for 3-5 minutes..
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| Meatballs immersed in the juicy tomato sauce |
So the delicious meatballs are ready. Serve these with spaghetti or a sandwich or whatever you wish :-)
I served it with dinner rolls. Stuffed a pair of lightly toasted diner rolls (pav bhaji buns) with the juicy meatballs in the middle.. Sprinkled a little parmesan cheese and it's ready to go :-).
I bet you will love it. Kids or adults everybody would love it.
Enjoy the veggie meatball sandwich at home.
See you soon with another interesting recipe. Don't forget to post your comments in the comments section. I would love to hear back from you :-).
Cheers,
Shweta
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