A little plant love for your St. Paddy’s green 🍀
(it counts, right?)
I sure hope so because I think you’re going to fall for these feisty Irish balls!
Baked up in the oven, these meatless wonders are packed with scrumptious flavors. A simple combination of nuts, beans and quinoa (and the magic touch of nutritional yeast) come together with the smoldering chipotle to deliver some pretty great taste.
Easy to assemble and tossed in a marinara sauce adapted to preferences.
The balls hold together well and are so convenient for lunch or supper (freeze great), and make delicious leftovers. I’ve been feasting on these lucky charms all week!
Serve them with your favorite toppings — fresh herbs, cheese, etc — I’ve sprinkled with nutritional yeast on some of these photos. I also typically add mushroom and onion to the sauce to create a hearty spaghetti style sauce which I adore.
When cooking for 1 or 2, I suggest freezing half the portion for a second meal. Nothing better at the end of a busy day than digging into the freezer for a ready-made heat and serve meal that actually tastes good (love that).
Be sure to read through the Notes for deets and best results.
I’d love to hear how it goes if you give them a try and as always, welcome your feedback (and photos!).
Happy Weekend Friends ~
- If you're cooking for 1 or 2, use half the balls (freezing the other half) and half the sauce (freezing separately). You will have a ready made dinner waiting in the freezer! Otherwise, this recipe will serve 4.
- For the Black Bean Balls
- 2 cups (270 g) cooked and cooled quinoa
- 1 cup (110 g) walnut pieces
- ½ cup (40 g) nutritional yeast
- 30 oz (850g/2 cans) cooked black beans, look for BPA free cans
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (or to taste, see Notes)
- 4 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 Tbsp tamari sauce (or soy sauce/liquid aminos)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp coarse ground Dijon (the wet grainy mustard)
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- ¾ tsp salt
- For the Marinara Sauce
- 4 cups (900 g) of your favorite marinara sauce (any tomato based sauce)
- ¼ cup almond milk or coconut cream (see Notes)
- 2-3 tsp (to taste) adobo sauce from the same can chipotle peppers (see Notes)
- Heat oven to 350 F
- Spread rinsed and dried black beans on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes; remove baking sheet from oven, shake the pan and return to oven for another 7 minutes or so until most of the beans have dried, swollen nd cracked open (this will help dehydrate the beans and add bulk/texture to the balls). Remove beans from oven and set aside to cool.
- Meanwhile, place quinoa, walnuts and nutritional yeast in a blender and pulse to combine. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Place baked beans in blender along with: garlic, chipotle, tomato paste, tamari (or soy/liquid aminos), Dijon, olive oil, cumin and salt. Blend to combine, continuing until a textured mass forms (not a super smooth purée). Transfer bean mixture to bowl with quinoa and use your hands to combine (it's fun!). The mixture should be nice and sticky and hold together well. If you find it a little dry, just add a bit more oil/tomato paste/tamari. Also, If it's too warm/soft, pop it in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes before shaping into balls.
- Using an ice cream scoop (ideally) scoop out about 2" worth of mixture and then form into a ball with your hands and place on a lightly greased parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 375 for 30 ish minutes stopping halfway to shake the pan (carefully as balls are not as tough/resilient as meat balls) but will hold up just fine with gentle tossing.
- Meanwhile, warm marinara sauce in a small saucepan, adding milk/cream as desired and adobo sauce if using.
- Place about half of the warm sauce in a separate larger pan and transfer the cooked balls over top (I used half the balls and froze the other half). Top the balls with remaining warm sauce, gently mixing to combine and sprinkle with fresh herbs, cheese, etc.
- Serve as desired (see Notes below for some options).
Working with chipotle peppers: you will find chipotle peppers in adobo sauce commonly sold in small cans. The peppers vary in size (within the can) and there's usually about 1 Tbsp of adobo sauce intermingled with the peppers. Chipotle peppers are hot and not the kind you want to sample directly from the can; but when mixed into a sauce they deliver a smoky delicious heat. How much heat is for you to determine; if you are new to chipotle, go easy and see how you respond to the heat level and make adjustments from there.
Milk or cream for a rosé-ish sauce: I like adding a bit of milk or cream to the sauce for a cooling contrast to the smoky flavors -- it's delicious and creates a pretty rosé sauce; you can work within your own dietary preferences here or skip it all together.
What is nutritional yeast and is it highly contagious? typically sold in flake form (looks a bit like a shaker of parm cheese), nutritional yeast is a seasoning that adds yummy flavor and nutrients to food. A source of B vitamins -- notably fortified with B12 important for vegans. I like its nutty (mildly hoppy) taste and many find it has a flavor reminiscent of cheese. I've topped some of the balls with it (and typically smother my popcorn in it too:) Give it a try! I use the one made by Bragg.
For service: enjoy these balls however you like - with pasta or spiralized veg or simply over mixed greens (we typically use a cabbage mixture).
Portion: if you're cooking for 1 or 2, I suggest using half the balls (freezing the other half) and half the sauce (freezing separately). You will have a ready made dinner waiting in the freezer! Otherwise, this recipe will serve 4.
I don’t know how I’ve missed these cuties! I’m sorry…. They look so beautiful and yummy I’d never guess they’re without meat and knowing you I would probably still be unable to recognise the vegetarian version when eating them. I am a bit ashamed to say but I have lots of black beans I bought a year ago or more….and never cooked them! Time to make some balls.
Love, love looove these bean balls, Kelly! Packed with so much flavor, and I love the ease of pulling a freezer meal from the oven. These are SO worth the effort! BTW – I’m swooning over your orange tofu (one of my favorite things) but I’m unable to leave a comment – the comment blocks are not there :/ . Beautiful and SO delicious, Kelly!
Hiii Traci! Thanks so much for letting me know about the comments (the settings seemed to have changed, maybe with an update that brought it back to default, not sure) all fixed :) omg, these balls … they are now a regular in our home! They are so, so, good (if I do say so myself ;d) and what’s neat is that once you’ve made them the first time, it’s so much quicker the next timessss… (autopilot:), thank you for your note sunshine.
I’ve made these twice already, my husband and I love them! The chipotle adds so much flavor and we get to eat them again the next day for lunch :) it’s perfect for us, thank you so much.
best way to start the day, reading a comment like this! Thank you for taking the time Chiranshi; I’m so happy to hear you’re enjoying these. Funny enough, I made them again this week too (our sons are in for spring break) and they were a hit all around – love when that happens – no leftovers though :))
Oh YAY! Another hearty vegetarian dish! I can think of several ways to eat these meatballs. I love the marinara sauce and it looks like a wonderful dish. Bet these would be great in pita like a falafel (something I love), or just eaten as a snack. Another dish to try soon. Thanks Kelly!
I think you’ll love these MJ, and you can amp up the kick as much as you like :) Yes, they would work great with pita (or almost anything, haha). enjoy!
Can’t wait to try them Kelly! Evan has recently decided to be a veggie so any ideas help! Beautiful photos as usual!
Good morning Tam, thank you for your kind words; so glad to hear these inspire; if she’s not into heat you can skip the chipotle and add a bit more of the other spices for flavor (maybe a milder ground chili with the cumin and some onion salt 👌). Hope you all love them! x
quick question Kelly! I’m whipping up these balls and am confused about the beans. Are they raw dried beans??? I am currently doing a quick soak method to cook the beans, but now I’m unsure. Can you clarify?
Hi! These are cooked black beans that you will then bake in the oven to dry and split (you can either boil your own beans or buy canned before popping in the oven). Cheers (can’t wait to hear how you enjoy!).
Thank you!
I am new to being a vegetarian, I don’t understand why you and others keep calling things “meatballs” when they are not. Just call them what they are, we are not idiots. These look good, I will give them a try. Thank you.
Hi Mark, when people search for these recipes, they’ll typically use the key words vegan or vegetarian meatballs, calling it this way allows them to find what they’re looking for. I hope you love the recipe!
These look incredible! Can a different nut be used? (walnut allergy)
Hi Sid, I’ve made these balls with pumpkin seeds (a rare allergen) and they were delicious – almond and cashew are two other possibilities that come to mind as a good fit here but I’ve not tried them in this particular recipe. Please let me know how it goes if you decide to give it a try and thanks so much for dropping in.
I am going to have to make them…. do you think the same mixture could work for a veggie burger, or would it be too hard to grill-cook? Maybe it would crumble, right?
but this recipe sounds like something not only me, but the resident meat -lover might enjoy too…
will keep you posted….
can you believe Spring is pretty much here?
Ah, the best, we soaked in the sun all weekend ✨ yeah, I’m afraid these wouldn’t do very well on the grill — it’s possible that using a well greased veg basket might help if you were up to the experiment, but no guarantees… They’re super tasty, hope you get a chance to make them Sally!
They sure look good, Kelly. And perfect timing since we’re still in winter mode up here (in fact, it is snowing as I type this comment). I just love the combo of textures in the balls, will definitely give them a go.
not quite out of the winter woods just yet, eh? They really do have a nice texture sans bread crumbs which is kinda neat too. Hope you love these Eva (and come on spring!)