Often when I’m prepping food for a wedding, I like to imagine the soon-to-be newlyweds further down the road… happy, blossoming and thriving in their new married lives. Sometimes I place happy “wishes” in the food. Now, I’m not saying that I think this actually does anything, but it’s a fun little thing I do in my head, to get through some of the more mundane tasks in the kitchen- and when I’m in that state of mind, my food usually ends up tasting better. I like to envision them growing old together and learning the delicate art of loving. I picture them spending time together in their own kitchens making meals and reconnecting after a busy day’s work- hoping these simple daily acts, will keep them connected, through whatever comes. Because inevitably, it will come.
The other day, as Brian and I stood side by side, chopping a mountain of vegetables, a feeling of joy swelled up inside me. It didn’t matter that the sun wasn’t shining, or the sink was full of dirty dishes, or that everything wasn’t exactly perfect. Somehow in that moment, all was right.
Most of all, I wish for these new couples, a generous sprinkling of these simple joyful moments throughout their lives.
I adore these little Black Caviar lentils from Pacific Northwest Farmers Co-op, 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. The best thing about these are the fact that they are grown right here in our backyard, in the Palouse. You can find them here.
Whole fennel seeds are cooked with the lentils.
Fresh ginger and turmeric are added to the sauce. If you can’t find fresh turmeric, ground will do just fine. But make sure to use fresh ginger.
The ingredient that gives the sauce its unique flavor is fenugreek leaves. I found them locally at the Oriental Market on Trent. If you can’t find them, don’t sweat it, the sauce will still taste good.
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Cooked Lentils and quinoa are mixed with cilantro, garlic and whipped tofu.
The tofu acts as the binder, and is undetectable once they are cooked.
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Roll into ping-pong sized balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet, or greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes. While they are in the oven make the summer sauce.
Place lentil meatballs over the sauce and sprinkle with cilantro.
Enjoy!!!
Vegan Lentil Meatballs with Indian Coconut Curry Sauce
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 60
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Category: Vegan, Main
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients
Vegan Lentil Meatballs:
- 1 cup black caviar lentils (uncooked) Sub green or brown lentils, just not “split” lentils
- ½ cup quinoa ( uncooked)
- 1 tsp fennel seed
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp granulated garlic
- ⅓ 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
Coconut Curry Fenugreek Sauce: ( if you like extra saucy, double the recipe)
- 4 cloves garlic- minced
- 1 T fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tsp fresh turmeric, grated (or ½ teaspoon ground turmeric )
- 1– 2 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 extra large tomato, finely diced, with juices
- 1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves
- 1 13.5 oz coconut milk (not lite)
- 1 Tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- ½ tsp salt, more to taste
- ¼ tsp cayenne, more to taste
- fresh cracked pepper
Instructions
1. On high heat, bring lentils and fennel seed to a boil in a small pot with 3 cups water. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer 25 minutes. Drain well.
2. On high heat, bring quinoa to boil in a small pot with 1 cup water. Cover, turn heat to low, simmer 15 minutes, turn heat off, leave covered.
3. Make the sauce. In a skillet or medium pot, saute garlic and ginger in olive oil, on medium until just golden, stirring often to prevent scorching. Add turmeric ( root, or ground) sauté 1 more minute. Add diced tomato, sauté until most of the juices evaporate about 5-8 minutes. Stir in coconut milk, fenugreek, lime, brown sugar, salt, cayenne and pepper. Taste for salt. Bring to a simmer, then turn off heat until ready to serve.
4.Make the vegan lentil meat balls. Pre-heat oven to 400F. In a food processor, place the cooked quinoa, and half of the lentils, and pulse until texture of coarse sand. Place in a large bowl. Add the remaining lentils, chopped cilantro, salt, granulated garlic to the bowl and mix well. In the same food processor, add the tofu (blotted well) and 1 T olive oil. (The tofu will bind the mixture and oil will keep tim from drying out.) Pulse tofu and oil until a smooth paste, scraping down the sides as necessary. Scoop it into the lentil mixture and mix it in well. Prepare a parchment lined baking sheet. With your hands, kneed lentil mixture briefly it’s thoroughly mixed and salt and spices are evenly distributed. With wet hands form small ping pong sized balls. Place on baking sheet and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
5.Warm the sauce and place lentil meatballs over the sauce, and sprinkle with cilantro. Serve immediately.
Notes
Makes 14-16 meatballs.
Double the sauce for extra saucy!
Keywords: vegan meatballs, lentil meatballs, veggie balls, indian lentil meatballs, the best vegan meatballs, the best lentil balls, vegan meatball recipes, lentil meatball recipes
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I love making homemade meatballs! This recipe looks lovely.
Oh my goodness that sauce looks divine! I’m actually eating lentil-quinoa “meatballs” right now – they fell apart hence the quotations. Smart idea with the tofu, I’ll try that next time!
What a beautiful post! I love that you instill secret wishes of happiness and joy in the weddings you cater! That’s so lovely 🙂 This dish looks amazing too, though I’ve never before seen fenugreek leaves. I wonder if some fenugreek seeds could be ground up and added, maybe?
I think that could work, or just leave out the leaves all together!
This looks so tasty! I love veggie meatballs, can’t wait to give this recipe a whirl 🙂
I have just stumbled across your beautiful site (via this recipe on Foodgawker) – so many delicious recipes! I have been pinning like crazy 😉
These sound so good, and such gorgeous photography. I’m looking forward to shooting some weddings this year…wish you’d be there catering them!
Ah… thanks Grace!!
Just came across your site via foodgawker as your photo caught my eye. Love your site, recipes and photography! Excited to try these.
Hello. I found this site looking for a tahini sauce recipe. My compliments for the wonderful photos and recipes. Greetings from Italy
Eugenia
Ciao Eugenia!
I love the visual beauty of this dish. The creativity that went into it is also amazing. Love, love your blog.
Thanks Penny!!
I am not a huge fan of eating tofu. Any suggestions on something else I could use to help it bind? Thanks!
Thats a great question. Do you want it to remain vegan, or are eggs ok?
These look awesome. Any substitution ideas for the tofu? Thanks.
I made this today and the flavor is amazing! I will definitely be making this again. I’m not a tofu fan either but you can’t even tell it’s in there. The meatballs took longer than 20 minutes to bake but they may have been larger than called for perhaps that’s why. Thanks for a great vegan recipe. I’m on the hunt for more of them.
Lentil Meatballs with Indian Fenugreek Sauce are extraordinarily toothsome. I love to relish them on weekends. Thanks for sharing post.
1 tsp of salt for the meat balls was too much. Otherwise an original recipe.
Thanks for the heads up. Just curious, what kind of salt did you use? I use kosher salt, which is less “salty” than sea salt or table salt. I do like things a bit on the the salty side though 🙂
Hi Sylvia, I tried out this recipe and it came out amazing! Just wanted to let you know that this was recipe was a stroke of creative genius 🙂 You can see my post about it here. http://eatpretty.weebly.com/real-food/lentil-meatballs-with-black-soba-noodles-and-fenugreek-coconut-sauce
Thanks!
1. for a non-vegan binding agent, can you use eggs? and if so, how many?
2. what kind of lentil can you use as a replacement for caviar lentils?
I am sure you can use eggs, but have not personally tried it. If I were to guess, 1-2 eggs, and you may need add some soft bread crumbs. I would start with one beaten egg, and check the consistency, and see if it sticks together. Add more if necessary. Another idea would be to puree some of the cooked lentils into a think paste. ( perhaps cook an extra cup) I bet the pureed lentils would act as a binder. Any Lentil would work, green, puy, brown as long as the husks are not removed. Remember cooking times will vary from lentil to lentil. Please let me know what you do and how it turns out! I’m curious! Thanks for the questions.
Plantains!!! or bananas!!! are an excellent binder to use as sub for the tofu. they mesh in with the theme and taste very well!! and most defiantly still vegan! 😉
Are the lentils meant to be cooked before putting them in the meatball ?
Yes! Make sure to read the instructions all the through before starting! ?
These sound absolutely delicious! I do have a question for you? My husband absolutely cannot stand coconut of any kind….is there anything else I can substitute the coconut milk with?
Do you want to keep them vegan Shari? Cream would work.
Thank you, vegetarian options would be ok too. I was wondering if a tomato base would be optional. Maybe diced tomatoes?
Sure, try it! let me know how it turns out!
I sure will! And thank you!
Love this dish! Have just made it as part of Vegetarian November (not a real thing, of course). We loved it. Fab flavour. Thank you!
Oh GOOD! I love it too, makes me so happy that others are enjoying it. 🙂
5 STARS! Thank you for the delicious recipe!
Thanks Juliana! Glad you enjoyed!
How long do you think these babies would keep in the fridge and freezer, respectively? If I wanted to freeze them, should I bake them first? This recipe looks so delicious.
Ok for few days in the fridge, and ok to freeze but they may get crumbly when you take them out? I would bake first. ?
Oh man. I love how decadent yet simple these are!
Oh my goodness, I never leave comments on anything but this was absolutely delicious! The “meatballs” held together beautifully and got nice and crispy in the oven (about 35mins in our crappy oven at 205C). You definitely can’t taste the tofu, not that I’d mind as I love tofu. I added more salt and garlic to the meatball mixture than this recipe, but that might be my tastebuds. I also used two tomatoes and a tiny bit more lime juice. I’m in Australia and couldn’t find these lentils anywhere so I used the small black/green French style ones and they worked great. Depending on how you’re eating this (by which I mean, my partner had it with rice which I think he drenched in sauce) you might find the sauce-to-meatball ratio a bit small. It’s a rich and delicious sauce, but we definitely will have to skimp on it to make it last the rest of the balls (but as I said, could just be we got too greedy with it!). Thank you for this recipe, I will absolutely be making it again! 😀
Hi Robert, thanks! I’m so glad you enjoyed these- thanks for your feedback, always appreciated! I will make a note to double the sauce in the recipe. 🙂 All the best to you!!!
★★★★★
I’ve made this dish several times and I just love it. I’ve even left out the fenugreek when I didn’t have any and it was still delicious. It’s perfect for these chilly Fall days.
★★★★★
thanks Angie! Appreciate your feedback and glad you are enjoying it!
what can i replace tofu with (i do not eat unfermented soy)? I’m fine with meat. would some fatty ground pork and egg hold them together?
You know, honestly I’m not sure. I’ve only made these with tofu, but feel free to give them a try!
Okay, this sauce is amazing and I’m definitely going to be using it for other curry recipes (green pea curry is next up, I’m betting potato/cauliflower will go good with it too!). I love fenugreek so much, and since I’m batch cooking for postpartum, I can vouch that this sauce freezes well on it’s own. Bonus that fenugreek is good for breastfeeding!
I tried for curiosity’s sake making these with lentils that had been soaked and sprouted to make them more digestible. I ended up cutting the tofu by about a third because the lentils were pretty moist. I’m going to attempt freezing these, I’ll try one batch uncooked, and one cooked and report back.
★★★★★
thanks Lacey! Appreciate all your notes, and sprouting the lentils is such a great idea. Yes, let me know how the freezing process works!
Well, freezing didn’t work, as they thawed they fell apart so it turned into a lentil crumble. Still delicious but definitely not a meatball! I use this sauce often as a methi mutter malai version since its vegan. My husband is South Asian and he loves it! I add 2 cardamom pods during cooking but otherwise I stick to the recipe!
I was worried about that. Thanks for sharing and good to know!!!