Meatballs without the meat are a delicious way to serve up a hearty vegetarian/vegan dinner. The sauce can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator or freezer. The meatballs come together quickly and add a delicious earthly flavor to the sauce.
Roasted Tomato Sauce
This beautifully delicious sauce comes from Annabel Langbein, The Free Range Cook. You can use store-bought tomatoes, or I use our fresh garden tomatoes in the summer and then freeze the sauce. It is a true pleasure in the middle of winter when we warm it up and put it over pasta, meatballs, or chicken. It is like a little kiss from our past summer.
3 lbs. tomatoes, cored and sliced into wedges
2 red bell peppers, deseeded and cut into eighths
1 large onion, sliced into wedges
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp rosemary, chopped
¼ cup tomato paste
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Preheat oven to 320℉
Place the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic on a baking sheet.
Mix the rosemary, tomato paste, sugar, olive oil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Spoon the mixture over the vegetables and stir them lightly to coat.
Bake for two hours until the vegetables start to caramelize.
Remove them from the oven and let them cool. Once cooled to room temperature, place them in a food processor or blender and puree.
Before serving, pour the sauce into a medium-size pot on low heat to warm.
Eggplant and Mushroom Meatballs
2 lbs. eggplant
3 portobello mushrooms, Gills removed
Olive oil for drizzling
1-15 oz. can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
2 cloves garlic
1 cup gluten-free panko breadcrumbs, or gluten-full
1 tsp chopped fresh sage,
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
1 tsp chopped fresh basil
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
Sprig of fresh basil for garnish
Parmesan cheese, optional
Preheat oven to 350℉
On a baking sheet, place the eggplants halves face down, mushroom and garlic. Bake for 20 minutes or until the eggplant is soft.
Scoop the eggplant meat into a food processor and add the mushrooms and garlic with skin removed. Next, add the beans, sage, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, and pulse until the ingredients are chopped finely.
Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in the breadcrumbs. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.
Form meatballs from the mixture. In a cast-iron skillet or other heavy-bottomed skillet, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil on medium-high heat. Cook the meatballs until they are brown and crisp on the outside.
Ladle the sauce onto plates or a large platter and place the meatballs on the sauce. Garnish with basil and parmesan cheese.
Just Salt It, and enjoy!
