I am sorry (but also amused) there are toddler fingers sneaking in all my food pics.

As you probably know by now, I really love food, which is something both my parents and in-laws are aware of. So they make sure to send me yummy stuff from Greece every now and then. In this recipe I combined a “polyspori” (it means “many seeds” literally in Greek) my mother sent me and many of the herbs my in-laws sent me. Plus tons of love and a bit of patience. They turned out great and I do believe belong in this category of veggie dishes that can fool meat eaters.

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked and drained beans and seeds of your choice. The polyspori mix I used had white and red beans, black-eyed peas, some sort of wheat, buckwheat and lentils. I also cook my pulses using chopped up onion and garlic. Always.
• 1 cup flour (you will add it slowly and see how much you need)
• 1 flax egg (that’s a tablespoon of ground flax seeds mixed with a bit of water)
• dried or fresh herbs of your choice. I put a ton of cumin, spearmint, oregano, pepper and a bit of salt
• a bit of flour to roll the balls in
• oil for frying. I used sunflower oil and they came out perfectly crunchy and golden.

Frying. Unhealthy and delicious.

Instructions

• In a big bowl put the beans and seeds of your choice. Make sure they are well-drained. If not, your mix will require a lot of flour and the taste will be blunt.
• Use a hand mixer to mash the pulses. Or you can put them in your food processor. Whatever works.
• Add in the flax egg and herbs and start kneading.
• Start adding flour, a bit at a time, till you have a dough solid enough to make balls with.
• Put a bit of flour in a plate and roll each meatless meatball in the flour.
• Heat a pan with quite a bit of oil (it should cover about 1/3 of your meatballs) and start frying.

I am sure you could also bake these in the oven, but let’s face it, they won’t be as delicious. You can eat them with mashed potatoes, drown them in vegan mushroom gravy or enjoy them with mustard as a “borrel” side dish (am I integrated yet?).

I know this recipe is a bit labor-intensive and time consuming, but the taste is so worth it! Give it a try and let me know how they turned out.

see? crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside