Lentil and Vegetable Balls Baked in Tomato Sauce
Fun Fact of the Day: In South African English, eggplant are called brinjals!
Here is a delicious recipe created by Chef Amy van der Merwe from South Africa, along with her description of the dish:
“I love brinjals and so I am always trying to find new ways of using them, and this one’s a banger. I have often used them in vegetarian meatballs because they add a lovely soft texture and body to them.”
Try these at home and let us know what you think!
Instructions
9 stepsStart by getting your sauce onto the stove. For the sauce, add one Tablespoon of olive oil into a medium-sized sauce pot, along with cloves of crushed garlic, the canned diced tomato, fresh basil, and salt.
Cook the contents over medium heat until the sauce has thickened. Taste, and add more salt if desired.
While the sauce is cooking, you can prepare the eggplant and lentil balls. Add all of the ingredients into a food processor, and blend until it forms a course texture.
Preheat the oven to 200˚C.
Use your hands to form the mixture into balls, with about 1.5 Tablespoons of mixture per ball.
Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, and fry the balls on all sides until they are nicely browned and crispy.
Pour the tomato sauce into a casserole dish and then add the vegetable balls into the sauce.
Dollop the fermented cashew cheese on top, and bake in the preheated oven for fifteen minutes.
Sprinkle with fresh basil before you serve it over gluten free pasta or as a main.
Recipe Notes
This recipe works well with other beans too, such as black beans, or kidney beans. Mushrooms are a great alternative to eggplant, if you prefer.
If your balls are struggling to hold together, you can use a bit more GF oat flour to bind them.
Feel free to use dairy mozzarella or parmesan on top if you don’t mind dairy.
