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italian vegan meatballs with tomato sauce and linguini
Allora! A serious comfort food dish with lovely sweet tomato sauce, spicy with a hint of lemon peel and garlic, covering fluffy umami veggie-balls. Easy and rich – a real treat!
cooks in
60 minutes
difficulty
medium
serves
4 persons
protein
Building blocks for muscles and other cells in your body.
carbohydrates
Energy for your whole body, including your brain!
vitamin c
Powerful antioxidant! Helps iron absorption.
ingredients
Tomato sauce
- 2 x 400 g canned tomatoes (go for San Marzano)
- 2 red onions
- 3 tbsp tomato purée
- 2-4 cloves of garlic (depending on size)
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp chili flakes
- Zest from 1 lemon
- Juice from ½- 1 lemon
- Salt
- Black pepper
- 3-4 tbsp olive oil
Vegan meatballs
- 750 g moldable vegan mince
- 3 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tbsp mustard (we used Dijon)
- 1 tbsp of dried oregano
- 3 gloves of garlic (crushed/grated)
- 2 tbsp good soy sauce
- 1 red onion
- 1-2 tsp chili flakes
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- Salt
- Black or white pepper
- Oil for frying
Pasta
- 400 g linguine pasta
- Water
- Salt
Topping
- Nutritional yeast
instructions
Tomato sauce
- Chop the onion finely and the garlic super-fine.
- Add oil to a pan and put on medium heat.
- Add the onion and garlic to the pan once warm. Cook gently on medium heat for 10 minutes until soft and sweet.
- Add tomato purée and cook for a minute or so.
- Add lemon juice and cook for another minute.
- Add tomatoes (crush them in your hands if whole), herbs and spices.
- Bring to a gentle boil and taste.
- Season with salt, peppar and lemon zest.
- Taste, if a bit flat add more lemon juice and salt.
- If the tomatoes are not sweet enough, you may need to add a bit of sweetener to balance the sauce.
Vegan meatballs
- If frozen, de-frost the mince in room temperature for a few hours.
- Chop the onions, smash the garlic and add to the mince together with spices, soy, vinegar, tomato purée and mustard. Wait with adding the salt.
- Mix well and have a taste, season with salt if needed. Does it taste a bit flat? Add more vinegar and salt.
- Distribute some oil on a regular plate. Roll up the mince to nice ball (we went for ping pong ball size), and put the balls on the oiled up plate.
- Heat a pan on medium-high heat. Add oil once warm and ”pour” in the balls from the oiled plate.
- Fry until golden brown all over.
- Once done, pour the meatballs and the cooking juices/oil into the tomato sauce.
Pasta
- Bring approx. 2 liters of cold water to the boil.
- Add 1% of salt to the water, it should taste like the ocean.
- Once boiling add the linguine and cook al-dente. I usually cook it for one minute less than the lower end indicated on the packaging, taste the pasta at this time. It should have a slight resistance but not be ”hard” in the middle. If needed let it cook for one minute extra.
- Grab the pasta with a weapon of your choice and pull it into the tomato sauce. Save the pasta water.
- Mix in the pasta with the tomato sauce. The dish should be elegant and loose, if needed add a bit of pasta water to loosen the sauce a bit.
- Finish off with a bit handful of nutritional yeast!
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