Meatless Meatballs

I am the first to admit that there are things I miss in the meat world. "Hi, my name is Danette and I miss the taste of some meats." Meetings will be held the 4th Tuesday of every month.

As always, my daughter and myself are looking for the least processed road in the vegetarian world. Granted, we know there will be some things we will forever purchase, but I think the trade off of not having meat in our diet is a decent balance. With that said. We were looking for a meatless meatball. So searching off I went. And low and behold I came across two recipes, both with eggplant as their meat substitute. Can anybody say sweeeet? I love eggplant, and luckily for us so does the rest our my family. Life was looking a whole lot better.

So we happen upon this recipe which we had to tweak a bit. Remember in an earlier post I made, there were keepers, tweakers and those you ditch. This one was a tweaker, and here its the tweaked recipe. Enjoy...for we did.

Eggplant Meatballs

3T olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 cups unpeeled diced eggplant(1 med-lg eggplant)
2 cups bread crumbs
2 large eggs, beaten(vegans, do your thing)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese(Vegans, you know what to do)
1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese(OK Vegans, blah blah blah)
3 cloves of grated garlic
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper
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Heat a large skillet and coat with olive oil. When skillet is hot, add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the eggplant and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Saute until it's soft, about 8-10 minutes. If the eggplant dries out to quickly and sticks, add a bit more olive oil. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Place all softened eggplant in the food processor and process into a smooth puree. Return to mixing bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mix well. If the ingredients seems too dry, add a teaspoon of oil.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.Coat a baking sheet with a small mount of olive oil. Wet your hand(A very important step) with a little water and shape the eggplant mixture into balls, using 2 large tablespoons per ball. Place meatballs on baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes until deep golden brown and slightly crusty. Do not over-bake or they will be too dry. Remove sheet from oven and cover lightly with foil to let the meatballs steam until ready.

Can I tell you super yummo. We also realized that they did not have to be in the shape of balls. We could cook them in the shape of a patty and Viola, we have Meatless hamburgers. Man being a vegetarian is fun.