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.

Vegan Lentil Meatballs with Indian Coconut Curry Sauce- a delicious healthy meal infused with fragrant Indian spices. Vegan and Gluten Free! #veganmeatballs #lentilmeatballs #vegan #indianmeatballs #veg

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

Indian Coconut Curry Sauce:

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.

lentil meatballs on a sheet pan

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!

Vegan Lentil Meatballs with Indian Coconut Curry Sauce- a delicious healthy meal infused with fragrant Indian spices. Vegan and Gluten Free! #veganmeatballs #lentilmeatballs #vegan #indianmeatballs #veg

Place lentil meatballs over the sauce and sprinkle with cilantro.

What to serve with Lentil Meatballs?

  1. Basmati rice
  2. Naan Bread
  3. Indian Spinach Salad 
  4. Palak Paneer
  5. Bombay Carrot Salad
  6. Authentic Chai!
  7. Chai Cookies! 

Enjoy the Lentil Meatballs- let us know what you think in the comments below.

xoxo

Sylvia

You may also enjoy

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
Vegan Lentil Meatballs with Indian Coconut Curry Sauce- a delicious healthy meal infused with fragrant Indian spices. Vegan and Gluten Free! #veganmeatballs #lentilmeatballs #vegan #indianmeatballs #veg

Lentil Meatballs with Indian Coconut Curry Sauce

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.8 from 73 reviews
  • Author: Sylvia Fountaine
  • 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

Voted “Best Vegan Recipe” on Food 52, this Lentil Meatball Recipe with Indian Coconut Curry Sauce is a delicious healthy meal infused with fragrant Indian spices. Vegan and Gluten Free! Watch the video!
 
 

Ingredients

Units

Lentil Meatballs:

Coconut Curry Sauce: ( If you like extra saucy, double the recipe)

  • 12 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

  1. 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. 
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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. 
  7. Bake! Place the meatballs on a parchement-lined baking sheet and place in the 400 F oven for 20-25 minutes.
  8. 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

Share this with the world!

Subscribe
to get recipes via email

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

Comments

  1. 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.






    1. 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.

  2. 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.






    1. I used Quinoa flakes, and my mixture was also more muddy in texture. But they held together beautifully, and are delicious!

    1. 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!

      1. 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.

  3. 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?

  4. 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 🙂

    1. 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?

  5. 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.






Our Latest Recipes