This is just like your typical meatball recipe, but make it all-veggie packed with essential nutrients. It is a bomb of delicious vegetables, including spinach, carrots, and smoky mushrooms. It is already tasty on its own, but you can serve it with sauces like ketchup, sweet chili, or marinara.
A Look At This Delicious Veggie Balls Recipe
If you love a good savory meatball but want something meat-free, try this vegetable-packed ball recipe instead. It is a healthier option since it is loaded with fiber and vitamins. To make the base, you will need finely chopped spinach, carrots, and mushrooms.
The recipe also requires corn flour to hold everything together. I also included cooked eggs for an eggy taste, but this is optional if you want an animal-free veggie ball.
The veggie balls are flavored with seasonings, such as salt, black pepper powder, sesame oil, and oyster sauce. What I love about this veggie ball recipe is that you can add other extra ingredients like tofu and green onions and further customize the taste with your preferred seasonings. Continue reading the recipe guide below to learn more about customizing the dish and cooking instructions.
Alternatives And Suggestions To Make Veggie Balls
If you haven’t tried making veggie balls before, here are some excellent ingredient alternatives and cooking suggestions to consider. I strongly suggest going through this section before proceeding with the recipe instructions to get the proper ingredients. Hopefully, these suggestions can help you create the perfect veggie balls according to your preferences.
- Mushroom options: Any type of mushroom will do, but the taste and texture of the veggie ball may vary. For instance, button mushrooms are earthy and slightly nutty, while portobello mushrooms are meaty and dense. I prefer fresh or dried shiitake mushrooms for their smoky, meaty, and umami taste. For a stronger shiitake mushroom flavor, use dried shiitake instead of fresh and soak it in hot water before chopping.
- Additional vegetable ingredients: As mentioned, the veggie ball is made with finely chopped spinach, carrots, and mushrooms to imitate the texture of minced meat. For added protein and texture, I recommend mixing in well-drained firm tofu that is mashed into bits like ground meat. Other excellent ingredients to add are minced garlic, green onions, mashed chickpeas, and red bell pepper.
- Scrambled egg alternative: If you want to follow an all-vegetable recipe without animal products, you can make a tofu-based “scrambled egg” alternative. To make this alternative, you will need 255g of extra firm or firm tofu mashed into small chunks for an egg-like texture. Cook this with diced onions, 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast, 1/2 teaspoon each of turmeric powder (for yellow color), garlic powder, and cumin powder. The most important ingredient to add for an “eggy” taste is 1/2 teaspoon of blacksalt. Then, sprinkle some black pepper and soy sauce and adjust the seasonings to taste.
- Cornflour alternative: Cornflour helps thicken the mixture and make it less wet. This helps shape the balls more easily without sticking or crumbling. You can use all-purpose flour or oat flour as an alternative. Other optional ingredients to use to adjust the consistency are quick-cook oats, panko or Japanese bread crumbs, and cornstarch.
- Whole egg alternative: Like most meatball recipes, a whole egg is added as a binder to retain the ball’s shape. Generally, this ingredient is optional, especially when you have created the perfect veggie ball consistency with the help of flour and other ingredient suggestions mentioned above. If you need an egg substitute for veggie balls, I recommend the following alternatives for 1 whole egg:
- 1/4 unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup soy milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (this makes buttermilk)
- 3 tablespoons of chickpea flour with 3 tablespoons of water
- 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoons of water
- 1 tablespoon of ground chia seeds mixed with 3 tablespoons of water
- Seasoning suggestions: In this recipe, I seasoned the veggie balls with salt, black pepper powder, sesame oil, and oyster sauce. You can swap oyster sauce with mushroom oyster sauce, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, teriyaki sauce, kecap manis, Worcestershire sauce with soy sauce and sugar, or oyster-flavored sauce. If you don’t have sesame oil, you can use any oil you have, such as olive or avocado.
- Cooking method suggestions: The veggie balls are cooked in the steamer for about 15 minutes. If you prefer a crunchier texture, you can cook the balls in oil by pan-frying or deep-frying. For lesser oil but still with a crunchy texture, you can also air-fry the balls at 180°C or 375°F for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Make sure to flip the balls to the other side halfway through the cooking time to have evenly cooked balls.
Ingredients And Kitchenware To Make Veggie Balls
I used the following ingredients and kitchenware to make my version of veggie balls. Once again, you can further personalize this recipe with your own chosen ingredients and cooking method. Here’s what you need to get started:
Kitchenware
- Pan for blanching the vegetables (optional)
- Mixing bowl
- Steamer (for steaming method) or pan (for frying)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of spinach (finely chopped)
- 1/2 cup of carrots (finely chopped)
- 1/2 cup of mushrooms (finely chopped)
- 1/2 cup scrambled eggs
- 30g of corn flour
- 1 whole egg
- 2g of salt
- 2g of black pepper powder
- 5g of sesame oil
- 10g of oyster sauce
- Extra corn flour for coating
- Your preferred sauce (optional)
How To Make Veggie Balls
Ready with your ingredients and kitchen tools? Awesome! Let’s get started with the recipe instructions. But before that, watch my short tutorial recipe video on Instagram or TikTok to learn more about the steps.
Did you already create this recipe? Don’t forget to tag @KitchenMisadventures to share your cooking adventures! These are the steps you need to follow:
Blanch and finely chop the spinach, carrots, and mushrooms. Put everything in a bowl. You can skip the blanching step since it can still be cooked when steamed, air-fried, or pan-fried.
Add the cooked eggs, corn flour, and whole egg into the bowl of vegetables.
Season the mixture with salt, black pepper powder, sesame oil, and oyster sauce. Mix everything thoroughly and adjust to taste.This is also the step where you can adjust the consistency, whether it is too wet or dry, by adding flour or wet ingredients as needed.
Once the consistency is suitable for shaping, you can shape the mixture into small balls using your hands.
Dredge each ball in corn flour for better texture and color.If you are frying the balls, you can also coat them with breadcrumbs for a crunchy texture.
Repeat step 5 two or three times for each ball.
Once the balls are coated, place them in a steamer (if you prefer steaming). If you want to fry them, place the balls in a pan with heated oil or an air fryer.
Steam them for about 15 minutes or until they are fully cooked. The balls should become more yellow and moist at the end of the cooking time.
Serve the veggie balls with your favorite sauce, such as ketchup, sweet chili, or chili sauce. Have these simple and delectable veggie balls for lunch, dinner, or snack time!
Nutritious And Delicious Veggie Balls
Equipment
- Pan for blanching the vegetables (optional)
- Mixing bowl
- Steamer (for steaming method) or pan (for frying)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of spinach finely chopped
- 1/2 cup of carrots finely chopped
- 1/2 cup of mushrooms finely chopped
- 1/2 cup scrambled eggs
- 30 g of corn flour
- 1 whole egg
- 2 g of salt
- 2 g of black pepper powder
- 5 g of sesame oil
- 10 g of oyster sauce
- Extra corn flour for coating
- Your preferred sauce optional
Instructions
- Blanch and finely chop the spinach, carrots, and mushrooms. Put everything in a bowl. You can skip the blanching step since it can still be cooked when steamed, air-fried, or pan-fried.
- Add the cooked eggs, corn flour, and whole egg into the bowl of vegetables.
- Season the mixture with salt, black pepper powder, sesame oil, and oyster sauce. Mix everything thoroughly and adjust to taste.This is also the step where you can adjust the consistency, whether it is too wet or dry, by adding flour or wet ingredients as needed.
- Once the consistency is suitable for shaping, you can shape the mixture into small balls using your hands.
- Dredge each ball in corn flour for better texture and color.If you are frying the balls, you can also coat them with breadcrumbs for a crunchy texture.
- Repeat step 5 two or three times for each ball.
- Once the balls are coated, place them in a steamer (if you prefer steaming). If you want to fry them, place the balls in a pan with heated oil or an air fryer.
- Steam them for about 15 minutes or until they are fully cooked. The balls should become more yellow and moist at the end of the cooking time.
- Serve the veggie balls with your favorite sauce, such as ketchup, sweet chili, or chili sauce. Have these simple and delectable veggie balls for lunch, dinner, or snack time!
