Where do you get your protein…? A question vegetarians and vegans are asked regularly. The building blocks of protein are amino acids which are found in a variety of foods. Lentils are a good source of some of the essential amino acids our bodies need. This month I’m doing Lentil Meatballs.
Ingredients:
1 x tbl spoon olive oil
1 x large onion chopped
2 x cloves garlic crushed
1 x tbl spoon chopped parsley
½ x tsp dried thyme
½ x tsp smoked paprika
½ cup dried lentils (personally I like to use brown lentils)
2 x cups vegetable stock
½ cup walnuts
2 x tbl spoons chickpea flour
2 x tbl spoons ground flax seed
2 x tbl spoons nutritional yeast
salt/ pepper
Method:
Heat the oil and fry onions until soft and translucent.
Add garlic, thyme, parsley, paprika and lentils. Fry for 1 minute.
Add the water, bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer until tender but not soggy. Approximately 25 minutes.
Heat oven to 200 degrees C.
Drain lentils and transfer to a large bowl.
Finely chop the walnuts and stir into the lentils with chickpea flour, ground flaxseed and nutritional yeast.
Form small balls, place on a baking tray – if you need more chickpea flour add another tablespoon or two to bind the mixture.
Wetting your hands will help with rolling the balls.
Bake for 30 minutes or until brown and crispy.
Serve with napolitana sauce on a bed of spaghetti.
Garnish with freshly chopped basil or parsley.
