Vegan Italian Meatballs
For years my go to holiday meal was centered around these delicious and simple meatballs. It has taken me quite a long time to find what meat substitute came closest to my original meatball. I think I did it! This recipe makes 8 ping pong ball size meatballs. It’s incredibly easy to double this recipe.
I usually serve them as they are with just some marinara sauce with a side of pizza fritte. Pizza fritte are fried pizza dough which can be served savory with marinara or pesto and parmesan cheese or sweet by rolling them in cinnamon and sugar after frying.
Of course you can serve them with pasta as people often do with meatballs, but what about a meatball sub? I would use a baguette but you could use whatever kind of bread you like or have on hand. I cut the baguette in half lengthwise being careful not to cut all of the way through so the fillings don’t easily fall out while you’re eating.
Toast the bread in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit just until it starts to brown. Put the desired number of meatballs into the bread as you would a hot dog into a hotdog bun. Spoon marinara sauce over the meatballs and sprinkle them with parmesan cheese and vegan mozzarella. Return the subs to the oven to further toast them and melt the mozzarella. If you really have the munchies you could use garlic bread for this sandwich!
Recipe ingredients:
1/2 lb. impossible meat [two impossible burger patties]
1/2 small onion finely chopped [about 1/3 cup]
4 cloves of fresh garlic finely chopped [about 2 tablespoons]
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup of flat leaf parsley a.k.a. Italian parsley finely chopped
1 cup of bread crumbs [I make fresh ones from soft bread like a normal piece of bread that I grind up in a food processor]
2 tablespoons of vegan parmesan cheese of your choice [more if you want more]
Saute chopped onion in a little oil over medium heat until the onions become translucent. Add the chopped garlic to the pan and saute them together until the garlic begins to smell fragrant and the onions begin to brown. Set them aside.
Put all of the other ingredients in a mixing bowl and when the onions and garlic have cooled a little add them too. Mix the ingredients together [best if done with washed hands and not spoons] until all of them become evenly distributed.
Make ping pong ball size balls and cook them either by frying pan, oven or air fryer.
For the frying pan method place the meatballs in a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of oil. Fry over medium to low heat. Leave them sitting in one spot untouched for about 3 minutes. You want the bottoms to form a crust so they don’t end up sticking to the pan. Roll them to the other side and cook that side for 3 minutes. Continue doing this until the meatballs brown all the way through. It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes total.
For the air fryer method cook them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes
For the oven method bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes.
I usually bake them in the oven. I put them on a baking sheet and just bake them without ever turning them over or anything and it has always worked out fine for me. It might be because I use one if those air bake trays that have a double layer of metal with an air cushion in between. That type of pan seems to distribute the heat more evenly throughout the meatballs. If you’re using some other type of baking sheet you might want to turn them over half way through the baking process.