Dope Beet Balls

These are not your grandma’s meatballs, these are not your frozen variety store bought veggie meat balls, these are not even your friend’s pinterest find beet balls, these are serious.  This uses twice the percentage of beets of any other recipe I’ve found, because we’re all about dat beet.  These are fantastic in pasta, meatball sub, in a wrap, or even atop a salad.  So if you’re ready for something a little more serious, LET THE BEET ROCK! (Black Eyed Peas) 

  

Serves 4, prep/cook time 1 hour

Ingredients:

3 medium-large beets

2 cups mushrooms (any kind)

5 cloves garlic

1 medium yellow onion (or red)

¼ cup nutritional yeast

2 tsp oregano

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder

½ tsp cayenne pepper   

1 tsp sage

½ tsp thyme

1.5 tsp fennel seeds

1 cup walnuts (or other nuts)

(for pasta, optional)

1 lbs whole grain pasta

Fresh basil leaves

Marinara sauce

Directions:      

    1)    Preheat oven to 400 degrees

    2)    Sauté mushrooms in a pan (no need for any spices at this time).  Once the mushrooms are cooked, drain the broth (save for later) and pat the mushrooms dry with a cloth.   

    3)    Peel beets (careful not to stain your clothes or cutting surface with beet blood!)

    4)    Place the beets, onion, and minced garlic into food processor.  If not using a food processor, use grater or chop all ingredients as finely as possible and combine in a large mixing bowl.  A blender also works, it’s just more labor and time intensive.

    5)    Mix up in the food processor, but don’t completely pulverize anything yet.   

    6)    Add in the nuts and nutritional yeast to the mixture and give it a few more good mixes. 

    7)    Add in spices (oregano, paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, sage, thyme and fennel seeds).  Feel free to add or subtract spices based on your personal preference.  Crushed red pepper, tandoori or even cumin could also be interesting.    

    8)    Mix up the ingredients to get a nice homogeneous consistency, but still mostly dry.  If the mixture becomes too wet, add in some nut meal, nut flour, or oat flour to balance it out.  

    9)    Prepare a cooking sheet with parchment paper (or non-stick spray if you don’t have parchment paper).  Using a kitchen spoon, take spoonful’s of the beetastic mixture and roll into ball (I like them to be about 1-½” in diameter).

   10) Place the beets in the oven and cook for 35-40 minutes, or until a nice crisp texture forms on the outside.  The insides will still be soft when cooked as you don’t want to dry these out too much. 

   11) Serve with your favorite pasta, in a beet ball sub, or atop a salad.  Enjoy!

Serves 4, prep/cook time 1 hour