I had a good weekend. It involved (finally) getting glasses that match my vision, doing lots of reading, watching Conan (or, more accurately, watching Jason Momoa) and almost getting this broken car business finished. It also involved balls. Cue teenage boy giggles.

Tomato-Basil Bean Balls

Despite the inclusion of fresh basil and sun dried tomatoes, these lacked a little, hmm, “zazzle.” I think I’m just not a fan of pureed chickpea as a base for baked products. Still, Spabettie’s tomato-basil beanballs are worth making. They’re healthy, quick and easy, so you can’t really go wrong. Plus they go great with soba noodles. Let’s not judge my inappropriate noodle choice. I had ‘em, I used ‘em.

Eggplant “Meat” Balls

Now these, these were pretty spectacular. I love the texture that eggplant and walnuts provide–I hate to describe it at “meaty,” but it is. And delicious. And good for you! Since these are an Allie original, the recipe follows:

Eggplant “Meat” Balls

2 eggplants, cooked, peeled, slightly drained and squished up (or blended if you want less texture)

2T chia seeds, ground

3/4C walnuts, broken into smaller bits

1C Oats

1/2C chickpea flour

Basil galore, roughly chopped/sliced; or, used dried Italian herbs of choice

Salt and pepper, to taste

To cook your eggplant, slice each in half length-wise, place cut side down on a baking sheet covered in foil, and poke a few holes in the back. Bake at 375 for around 30 min, or until they get really soft and start oozing liquid. After they cool, scrape out all the meat (if you don’t like the seeds, you can toss ‘em, but I leave them in) and drain off any excess liquid. Squish up the eggplant with your hands (trust me, this is really fun), or be an adult and use a proper mashing tool, fork or food processor.

This dough/batter/precooked mess will be pretty sticky, but if it feels too wet, add some more chickpea flour or oats–eggplants vary in size/moistness. Pat generous tablespoon-ful amounts into balls, place on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 min at 375.

I froze my extras which prevented me from eating the entire batch in a day. I guess that’s a good thing…

Apple-Cinnamon Cookie Balls

This was a very loose interpretation of the chocolate chip cookie ball recipe from CCK (used maple syrup, finely chopped apple, tons of cinnamon). They were incredibly good, but were definitely not enough food for this one. And somehow take as much time/effort/mess as a full-sized batch of cookies.

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Eats and Treats, Recipe, Vegan

August 22, 2011

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