These chickpea beanballs are a delicious, vegan and gluten-free alternative to meatballs. Serve them with our roasted red pepper sauce for some extra flavor. I haven’t made any sort of “meatballs” for you yet so I thought it would be fun to continue going out of my comfort zone to create some cozy recipes for you while the weather is still cool.
WHY WE LOVE THEM
Before I get into what inspired me to create these meatballs, I must say that I have fond memories of eating meatballs when I was a kid with my Italian grandparents who made THE BEST meatballs. Since I know a lot of you are vegetarian, I only include optional meat alternatives in my recipes, which is why these are meat-less. Don’t worry, they’re still delicious.
HOW WE MAKE THEM
PREP TIPS // The easiest way to prep these cute little beanballs is to make sure you have all of your ingredients laid out in front of you before you get started (including tools like your food processor and baking sheets, which I have below for you in the SHOP the RECIPE so you can see which tools I use for myself). I like to keep the chickpeas a little bit chunky in these balls so if you don’t want super soft beanballs, let the chickpeas stay a bit chunky!
INGREDIENT SWAPS // You can easily swap out any beans of your choice; however, I used chickpeas in these beanballs because they’re loaded with protein and they have so much more flavor than other beans, in my opinion. You do what you want to do!
THREE easy STEPS
Here’s how we made these Chickpea Beanballs with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce in three simple steps.
STEP 1 // Preheat your oven and prepare your baking tray with parchment paper.
STEP 2 // Combine all ingredients in a food processor and use your hands to form ball shapes. Transfer them to the prepared baking sheet and bake until golden brown.
STEP 3 // Remove from the oven, top with the Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and EAT!
LISTEN // STEP-by-STEP DIRECTIONS
Listen below for Amie’s tips that are not mentioned in this article as well as quick directions on how to make this recipe step-by-step.
SHOP the RECIPE
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HOW WE EAT THEM
SERVING SUGGESTIONS // These beanballs would be delicious served with a dinner salad like my Easy Roasted Carrot & Apple Salad or in the place of meatballs on my Easy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta. I love storing any leftover sauce in the cute glass containers shown above in SHOP the RECIPE. You can use the parchment paper above to wrap the leftover beanballs and store them in the refrigerator.
OPTIONAL ORGANIC ANIMAL PROTEIN // If you’re a carnivore, you can serve these beanballs with some organic chicken on the side. If you like your chicken roasted, poached, sautéed or baked, we have step-by-step directions for our favorite ways to cook organic chicken: How to Cook Chicken.
STILL HUNGRY? For more of our anti-inflammatory recipes, check out our 30 Day Reset, which is only available for a limited time.
These chickpea beanballs are a delicious, vegan and gluten-free alternative to meatballs. Serve them with our roasted red pepper sauce for some extra flavor.
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp. filtered water
- 1 Tbsp. ground flaxseeds
- 2 slices Canyon Bakehouse gluten-free rye bread
- 1 15.5 oz. BPA-free can chickpeas, drained
- 5 large leaves fresh basil leaves
- ½ cup well shaken full-fat coconut milk
- ½ cup raw walnuts, chopped
- 1 ½ tsp. sea salt, divided
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- ½ tsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 recipe Roasted Red Pepper Sauce for serving
Instructions
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Mix ground flaxseeds and water; let sit for 10 minutes to make the 'egg' binder.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
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Combine flax 'egg' with the rye bread, chickpeas, basil, coconut milk, walnuts, 1/2 tsp. of the sea salt, ground cumin, pepper, and chili powder. Blend in a food processor until well combined but let the chickpeas stay chunky for texture when you bite into these beanballs. Then, using your hands, form the 'dough' into 2" balls and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet.
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Brush olive oil on top of each ball and sprinkle with remaining sea salt.
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Bake for 35-40 min or until golden brown.
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Meanwhile, make the Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.
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Remove the beanballs from the oven, set aside to cool for 5 minutes then serve warm, with our Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.
RECIPE COPYRIGHT // This recipe was created by Amie Valpone of AmieValpone.com. Please do not reprint this recipe without our permission. If you’d like to feature this recipe on your website, please rewrite the directions and link to this recipe as the original source. Thank you.
Family loves chickpeas. Was not too inspired the other night and wanted to make something less fussy and this recipe was so tasty and so easy to whip out. I just popped all the balls in the oven and assembled a salad while the pasta cooked in the pot. I was done in no time. Thank you so much for simple and easy meal.
Thanks for sharing nice post. Great , Thank you
I put these over pasta instead of the sauce you have listed. So so good!