When the weather starts to get cooler, I find it harder to eat just salads for dinner. I have been on a quest to eat more plant based foods, so for dinner I made lentil "meatballs" with buckwheat pasta. I've seen many recipes for meatless meatballs but most of them use breadcrumbs. Instead of breadcrumbs I substituted oat flour and psyllium husk powder to help bind the ingredients together. To make your oat flour, measure the rolled oats and place into a blender or food processor and process until a flour forms.
Lentil "Meatballs"
- 1/2 cup brown or green lentils, soaked over night
- 1/2 cup split peas, soaked over night
- 1 onion, diced small
- 1 carrot, shredded
- 1/2 stalk of celery, finely diced
- 1/2 cup diced button mushrooms
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- 1 clove garlic, minced garlic
- 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried
- 1/4 cup oat flour
- 1 tsp psyllium husk powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- olive oil
In separate pots, cook the lentils and split peas in salted water until tender. Drain the beans. Place some olive oil in a sauté pan, cook the onions until translucent. Add in the carrots, celery, mushrooms, and garlic. Cook until the vegetables are tender. Season with salt and pepper. Place all the ingredients into a food processor bowl and and process for a few seconds. The mixture should still be coarse.
Using an ice cream scooper or spoon, form 1" balls. Pour some olive oil into a sauté pan and add the lentil meatballs into the pan, browning the meatballs.
To add more vegetables to my meal. I incorporated some zucchini noodles to my buckwheat pasta.
I sautéed the zoodles with some garlic and olive oil. After cooking the buckwheat noodles, I mixed the zucchini with the pasta. Serve with your favorite sauce.
