HELLO! These chickpea meatballs are PACKED with flavor and hold together well enough that you can put them on a sandwich with marinara, in a pita with cucumbers and tomatoes, or over pasta with my roasted red pepper sauce, and it won’t turn into a mushy mess! So let’s get into it.
What you’ll need:
1 can of chickpeas (drained)
2 cups cooked brown rice (room temp. or cold)
1 cup chopped pecans
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
possibly some breadcrumbs
What you’ll do:
- Hand mash your chickpeas, or use a food processor if you have one (unlike me). Be sure to mash them just enough so they’re moldable, but still have some nice chunks in them.
- Put the pecans in a high-speed blender (or again a food processor if you’re lucky)
- Add the rice, blended pecans and garlic to your mashed chickpeas. Mix with hands (or spoon if you’re fancy) until well combined.
- Add nutritional yeast, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper, and mix again. (I like to add a few shots of hot sauce in there too for a little spice)
- If your mixture is sticking together nicely, you’re good. If it’s too soft, add breadcrumbs until it sticks together better.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and form your mix into balls using about 2-2 1/2 tbsp of mix per ball
- Place balls on a greased cookie tray or PYREX glass pan
- Bake for 25-30 minutes flipping half way through
ENJOY this with my roasted red pepper sauce, over pasta, or another carb of your choosing!
Grace Plant Based 