Saucy Moroccan Meatless Balls with Fragrant Rice and Flaked Almonds
These Saucy Moroccan Meatless Balls are full of great texture from walnuts and chickpeas, and are given a sweetness from apricots. Served with red wine tomato sauce, tangy citrus fragrant rice and topped with flaked almonds, giving the dish a brilliant crunch.
Servings: 6
Ingredients
Meatless Balls
- 1 white onion, chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 carrot, finely diced
- 250 g mushrooms, finely diced
- 2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 3 teaspoon coriander powder
- 2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoon chili flakes (optional)
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 6 dried apricots, finely diced
- 3 cups cooked chickpeas (or 2 tins of drained chickpeas) (other beans like haricot or borlotti will work fine too)
- 6 tablespoon ground chia seeds or linseed
- 12 tablespoon water
- zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- ¼ cup walnuts, finely chopped
- ¼ cup buckwheat flour
- Small handful fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 tablespoon Olive oil (for frying and for brushing the meatless balls)
- Toasted almond flakes, to serve
- Handful fresh coriander or parsley, chopped, to serve
Fragrant Rice
- 350 g rice of choice
- 4 preserved lemons, chopped finely
Passata-based Tomato Sauce
- 1 large jar tomato passata (~700g)
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ⅓ cup vegan red wine
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Chili (optional)
Instructions
Meatless Balls
- Heat up 2 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large frying pan or saucepan. Add the onion and fry until soft. Then add the garlic and fry for a further couple of minutes.
- In a food processor, shred the chickpeas and set aside.
- Add to the onion and garlic the carrot and mushrooms, and sautee until soft but also until liquid from mushrooms has evaporated.
- Stir in all the spices, rosemary, salt and pepper. Cook for another few minutes on a low heat. Then add the tomato paste.
- In a separate bowl, combine the ground chia seeds / linseed and water, and allow it to form a jelly-like substance.
- In a large mixing bowl, place all sauteed ingredients from the pan, plus the shredded chickpeas, walnuts, zest, apricots, nutritional yeast, buckwheat flour and chia jelly. Combine the mix with your hands.
- Place the mix in the fridge for a few hours for it to firm up. This will allow you to more easily make the meatballs.
- Before making up the meatless balls, preheat oven to 200 C. Line a baking tray with baking parchments and brush it with olive oil.
- Use your hands to form balls from the mixture. These should be about golf ball sized. Squeeze the mixture in your hands before shaping into a ball to ensure they won’t fall apart.
- Brush each meatless ball with olive oil.
- Bake them for 15 minutes, then turn each one over and bake for another 15 minutes. They can also be pan fried, or rolled in ground almonds and deep fried.
- Serve on a bed of fragrant rice, with tomato sauce, and garnish with coriander and toasted flaked almonds.
Fragrant Rice
- Cook rice as per rice instructions.
- Once cooked, add the preserved lemon and mix through. Leave the lid on the rice for a few minutes once the lemons are mixed in, so the flavour can infuse.
Passata-based Tomato Sauce
- Fry the garlic in the olive oil with the cumin and paprika.
- Once the flavours are released, add the passata. Add the chili if using.
- Add the red wine and cook for 10 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper.