Lentil and Vegetable Balls Baked in Tomato Sauce
Description
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!
Ingredients
For the Sauce:
For the Eggplant and Lentil Balls:
For the Toppings:
Instructions
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Start 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.
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Cook the contents over medium heat until the sauce has thickened. Taste, and add more salt if desired.
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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.
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Preheat the oven to 200˚C.
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Use your hands to form the mixture into balls, with about 1.5 Tablespoons of mixture per ball.
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Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, and fry the balls on all sides until they are nicely browned and crispy.
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Pour the tomato sauce into a casserole dish and then add the vegetable balls into the sauce.
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Dollop the fermented cashew cheese on top, and bake in the preheated oven for fifteen minutes.
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Sprinkle with fresh basil before you serve it over gluten free pasta or as a main.
Note
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.
