Mushroom Balls
Chef: Mandy From: Ethiopia Serves: 4
Time: 15 minutes Cooking: 30 minutes
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tin mushrooms, drained, rinsed and finely chopped
100g breadcrumbs (buy from the supermarket or make your own)
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbsp chickpea flour mixed with water (or 1 beaten egg)
Optional: 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp nutritional yeast, 1 tbsp tomato puree, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tbsp chopped parsley, 1 tsp mixed dried herbs or oregano – you can add any of all of these items for extra flavour but they’re not essential
These delicious mushroom “meat” balls are suitable for vegetarians. We love them because they contain a healthy portion of vegetables. We came up with this recipe because we had a lot of tinned mushrooms that needed to be used up. However, you can also make this recipe with fresh mushrooms. You will need about 150g mushrooms. We’ve used a food processor to make this recipe. If you don’t have one you can use a hand held stick blender instead or mash the ingredients together very well.
Method
Heat up 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan.
Add the chopped onion, stir with a wooden spoon and fry for 10-15 minutes over a medium heat until soft. Stir often.
Add the chopped garlic and fry for two more minutes.
Next add the chopped mushrooms, stir well and fry for a further 10 minutes until the mushrooms are cooked.
If you have any of the following add them now (don’t worry if you don’t – you can leave them out) – 1 tsp dried herbs, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp nutritional yeast, 1 tbsp tomato puree, 1 tbsp chopped parsley. Stir well.
Transfer your mushroom mixture to a food processor if you have one and process until the ingredients have broken down into a thick paste. If you don’t have a food processor, put it in a mixing bowl and blend with a handheld blender or use a potato masher to mash the mixture together as well as you can.
Mix 2 tbsp chickpea flour with 2 tbsp cold water until you have a thick paste (alternatively you could use a beaten egg). Add this to the mushroom mixture with 100g breadcrumbs and a little salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan)/200°C/gas mark 6. Line a baking tray with non stick paper. Use your hands to roll the mixture into 10 small balls. You can press the mixture firmly with your hands to help it stick together.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, turning halfway, until turning brown.
Serve with pasta or rice and tomato sauce.