Zucchini vegballs pasta is a great vegetarian version of the famous meatballs spag, even fills you up as much as the meat version. The zucchini balls are made in the oven, so extra healthy, barely any oil used for an ultra healthy vegetarian dish. I saw this recipe in many places online, most of them only contains zucchini, for this particular recipe I’ve done the vegballs with extra onion, garlic and flat leaf parsley for extra flavor.
Zucchini’s water
Zucchinis are often underestimated, because they contain so much water and get soft and mushy as soon as your cook them. Also zucchini doesn’t have the boldest of flavors… again because it’s filled with water. So… for this recipe, we’ll cook the grated zucchini and onion at first, to release most of the water they contain so this way it’s going to concentrate the flavor. All there is left to do is making some nice tasty miniballs with it. The consistency and texture of those zucchini vegballs are similar to the meatball ones, as firm and heavy, you might even be able to trick your guests or family members… it’s meatballs.
The trend of “Meatless monday” is high right now, well this dish is a great way to start the week for sure. Especially for those meat lovers out there, this recipe will satisfy even the most vegetarian sceptic out there. So, if you are looking for new ways to eat vegetarian, once in a while, or an actual vegetarian, try these easy to make vegballs!
So let’s make those zucchini vegballs
Zucchini vegballs pasta
Makes 3 portions
Ingredients
2 zucchinis grated- 1/2 a white onion grated
- 1 garlic clove finely chopped
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 100g of bread crumbs
- 1 hand of flat leaf parsley finely chopped
- salt and pepper
Directions
*Bring the oven to 180°C (350F)
- Grate the zucchini, onion and add salt to it
- In a pot cook with olive oil, at high heat, the zucchini mix and the garlic for 15 minutes or until almost all the water is evaporated
- Drain the leftover juice, from the zucchini, mix through a sieve,
push down the pulp with a spatula to get rid of all the juice, keep the zucchini water for the tomato sauce (reducing it by half before adding your favorite tomato sauce to it) or discard - Add the rest of the ingredients to the zucchini pulp and mix (I’ve used 85g of bread crumbs in the balls and 15g to coat
them) - Form small balls, with oiled hands, and add to baking tray (covered with a baking paper or oiled)
- Spray them or brush them with a little olive oil
- Cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 180°C (350F) (until turning light brown)
- Add to the warm tomato sauce pot and cover
them with sauce - Serve with pasta
Serve with a few optional shaves of parmesan. Enjoy!
