These vegan, Lentil Meatballs with Coconut Curry Sauce are truly delicious! Infused with fragrant Indian spices, they are healthy and full of flavor. Vegan and Gluten Free! Video.
These flavorful vegan, Lentil Meatballs are served over a fragrant Indian-spiced Coconut Curry Sauce. The aroma will drench your kitchen in goodness. The lentil meatballs are baked, rather than fried – so they remain relatively low in fat. Served with basmati rice or a salad, this meal is hearty, healthy and delicious. I also just learned… it also won BEST vegan recipe over at Food 52!
Lentil Meatballs | 60-second Video
Lentil Meatball Ingredients
- Black lentils (uncooked) -I adore these little Black Caviar lentils because of their petite size, their dark color and rich earthy flavor. They are meaty little guys, who hold their shape after cooking, and take only 20 -25 minutes to cook. But feel free to use brown lentils or green lentils. Any whole lentils will work great here- just do not use split lentils.
- fennel seeds
- Quinoa
- Kosher salt
- granulated garlic
- cilantro
- firm tofu
- olive oil
Indian Coconut Curry Sauce:
- garlic
- ginger
- fresh turmeric (or ground turmeric )
- olive oil
- fresh tomato
- Fenugreek leaves – truly elevate! Use fresh or dried. Note: Fenugreek seeds are a different flavor.
- Coconut milk (not lite)
- lime juice
- salt, pepper, seasonings
TIP: Dried fenugreek leaves truly elevate this dish! We use them often here on the blog- so they won’t go to waste!
How to make Lentil Meatballs
Cooked Lentils and cooked quinoa are mixed with cilantro, garlic and spices.
Tofu is whipped in a food processor into a thick paste, and acts as the binder here. Fold this into the lentil-quinoa mixture.
With wet hands, form, into ping-pong-sized balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake the lentil meatballs in the oven for 20-22 minutes.
While they are in the oven make the coconut curry sauce. I highly recommend making a double batch of the sauce!
Place lentil meatballs over the sauce and sprinkle with cilantro.
What to serve with Lentil Meatballs?
- Basmati rice
- Naan Bread
- Indian Spinach Salad
- Palak Paneer
- Bombay Carrot Salad
- Authentic Chai!
- Chai Cookies!
Enjoy the Lentil Meatballs- let us know what you think in the comments below.
xoxo
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Lentil Meatballs with Indian Coconut Curry Sauce
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 60
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 15 lentil balls
- Category: Vegan, Main
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Indian
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Ingredients
Lentil Meatballs:
- 1 cup black caviar lentils (uncooked) Sub green lentils or brown lentils ( see notes)
- 1 tsp fennel seed
- 1/2 cup quinoa (uncooked)
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp granulated garlic
- 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
- 6 oz firm tofu, pressed down (to release water) and patted dry – this acts as the binder (do not use silken tofu)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- spray olive oil
Coconut Curry Sauce: ( If you like extra saucy, double the recipe)
- 1- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic- finly minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
- 1 teaspoon fresh turmeric, grated (or 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric )
- 1 extra large tomato, finely diced, with juices
- 1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves (FYI: this is different, and better than fenugreek seeds)
- 14-ounce can full fat coconut milk (not lite)
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, more to taste
- fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the lentils. On high heat, bring lentils and fennel seeds to a boil in a small pot with 3 cups water. Cover, turn heat to medium-low, and simmer until tender, 15-25 minutes, depending on their size. Drain well, pat dry.
- Cook the quinoa. On high heat, bring quinoa to a boil in a small pot with 1 cup of water. Cover, turn heat to medium-low, simmer for 15 minutes, until all the water is gone, turn the heat off, and leave covered.
- Make the coconut curry sauce. In a skillet or saute pan, over medium heat, saute garlic and ginger in olive oil, until just golden, stirring often to prevent scorching. Add turmeric ( fresh turmeric root, or ground) sauté 1 more minute. Add diced tomato, and sauté until most of the juices evaporate, about 5-8 minutes. Stir in coconut milk, fenugreek leaves, lime juice, brown sugar, salt, cayenne and pepper. Taste for salt. Bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat until ready to serve.
- Make the vegan lentil meatballs. Pre-heat oven to 400F. In a food processor, place the cooked quinoa, and half of the drained lentils (see notes) and pulse until the texture of coarse sand—place in a large bowl. Add the remaining lentils, salt, granulated garlic, and chopped cilantro to the bowl and mix well.
- In the same food processor (no need to rinse) add the tofu (blotted well, broken apart) and olive oil. The tofu will bind the mixture and oil will keep them from drying out. Pulse tofu and oil until a smooth creamy paste, scraping down the sides as necessary. Scoop it into the lentil mixture and mix it all well.
- Form meatballs: Prepare a parchment-lined baking sheet. With your hands, knead lentil mixture briefly so it’s thoroughly mixed and salt and spices are evenly distributed. With wet hands ( or small cookie scoop) form small ping-pong-sized balls. Spray with a little spray olive oil.
- Bake! Place the meatballs on a parchement-lined baking sheet and place in the 400 F oven for 20-25 minutes.
- Assemble: Warm the sauce gently in the pan and place lentil meatballs in the sauce, and sprinkle with cilantro. Serve immediately.
Notes
Storage: Leftovers will keep up to 4 days in an airtight container in the fridge. To freeze, freeze meatballs separately from the sauce on a sheet pan. Once frozen, they should be ok in a zip-lock freezer bag. Full disclosure. These are quite tender and prone to crumbling after they thaw.
Double the sauce for extra saucy! Most people are enjoying this doubled. 🙂
TIP: If using large brown lentils, blend them all with the quinoa for better binding! I like leaving some of the tiny black lentils whole ( for texture and looks) but this doesn’t work as well with big brown lentils.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 3 lentil balls
- Calories: 295
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 244.4 mg
- Fat: 8 g
- Saturated Fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 40.2 g
- Fiber: 6.8 g
- Protein: 18.5 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Recently joined your site. My ways of cooking are very similar to yours. This was a very nice recipe, had to make a few changes. I did use dried fenugreek, but found it to bland, therefore added fenugreek seeds and a little fish sauce. This made it into a very balanced, delicious, dish.
Love it Catharine, and welcome! Glad you are here, appreciate the review. 🙂
Just made and it was delicious. I used extra firm tofu and it worked fine. I didn’t have fenugreek leaves, so used a little less powder. Doubled the sauce! Amazing flavor, highly recommend.
Thanks for taking time to leave such a helpful review. So glad you enjoyed this Liz!
The flavor of the recipe is great, the meatballs are flakey. I”ve added flax eggs to bind the meatballs.
Glad it worked out Inbal!
This looks delicious! Quick question: I cannot eat quinoa, would this work with brown rice (short or long grain?)
PS – I’ve made over 60 of your wonderful 5/5 recipes and I keep coming back!
Thank you for all of them!
Awesome to hear Joanne! Great question- I have not tried this with rice, but if I were to guess, I think a short grain brown rice might just be sticky enough to be a great binder. Will you let us know how it goes if you try it?
I made the recipe tonight and the whole family absolutely loved it!
I used brown lentils and the texture ended up being more like mud than sand. But with a little extra time in the oven the final texture was perfect.
So glad it worked out Elena! Thank you for the review and rating!
Absolutely loved this recipe and will definitely be making again! The sauce is simple yet so flavourful and the lentil balls pack so much protein for a well-rounded meal. I just served over some basmati rice and it was delicious. My toddler ate this for dinner and kept saying “this is yummy”!
Love this Kyla! Thanks for taking time to renew!
I wanted to try the recipe for a long time and finally found the black lentils. The sauce is really great but I find the lentil meatballs not very surprising in taste and they fall apart in the sauce after a while. It all gets a bit mushy. I might try to replace the quinoa, which has a very bland taste, with something else as I am not a quinoa fan.
Feel free to experiment. 🙂
This Lentil Meatball recipe looks amazing. I’m definitely going to try this.
Can this meal be frozen?
Hi Margot- fyi: these are quite tender and prone to crumbling after they freeze and thaw. To freeze, freeze baked meatballs separately from the sauce on a parchment lined sheet pan. Once frozen, they should be ok in a zip-lock freezer bag.
Do you think I could use red lentils instead? No caviar, brown, or green lentils available where I live
Red lentils are much softer in texture. We don’t recommend them for this recipe.
I really liked this and my 4 year old seemed to like it too. I halved the recipe since I read that the meatballs didn’t store well but, since I am not full vegan, I tried adding an egg and they were perfect! I was able to bring them to work the next day and reheat them in the microwave for lunch! I did use brown lentils instead of black so I’m not sure if that had something to do with them holding up so well. Also, I was a little worried they would be mushy because I didn’t drain my lentils very well and I had more of a mud texture than sand, but the texture was spot on. I will probably use this meatball recipe for other recipes in the future.
Great! Glad you liked it.
I used Quinoa flakes, and my mixture was also more muddy in texture. But they held together beautifully, and are delicious!
Glad it worked out Linda. Thanks for sharing!
Just curious: Why would silken tofu not work in this recipe?
To be honest, I haven’t tested it with silken tofu, but I feel like it doesn’t have the “sticking power” of regular tofu. Feel free to give it a go if you like Nancy- and please share your results. 🙂 I could be wrong!
Hi Sylvia. I tried the thawed frozen silken tofu with a slightly different recipe that used mushrooms rather than the quinoa that is in your recipe and it worked brilliantly. Thanks.
Ok good to know!
Hmm. For a weeknight when you have to get dinner on the table quickly, do you think canned lentils would work? Or would that just ruin the dish?
I think they would work fine!?
Sure! Canned lentils will work.
I ran out of tofu and made the meatballs with smashed baked yuca instead, and no other changes to the recipe. The texture was amazing!
Try this if you’re looking to make this recipe soy-free 🙂
Brilliant Andrew! Glad it worked out.
this sounds delicious BUT is there a substitute for the tofu? Some of us do not use soy,
Hi Maria- no substitute for this recipe without other things changing. I’m sure you can make lentil meatballs without tofu- you could try googling that?
We really enjoyed this, we made the smaller potrion for the two of us as I happened to have a half can of coconut milk to use up. Very tasty and definitely a recipe I’d make again.
Glad you enjoyed Ali!