This is the best recipe I’ve tried in a long time! Seriously. Spaghetti and meatballs is not a common recipe in Spain and when I tried it for the first time I loved it so much. I make a vegan alternative now and it tastes even better.
Ikea offer some vegan dishes here and these meatballs are my favorite one. They also sell them at the supermarket, so we bought them and made this healthy version that tastes great. We usually use our homemade tomato sauce or marinara sauce to serve our meatballs and also make some pasta sometimes. These balls are so delicious, you can eatthem alone, with no sauce. Hope you make this recipe guys!
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Ikea Style Vegan Meatballs
- Prep: 15 mins
- Cook: 45 mins
- Total: 1 hour
- 4-8 1x
- Main dish
- Vegan, Swedish
Servings 4-8 1x
I usually serve this Ikea-style vegan meatballs with some homemade tomato sauce or marinara and sometimes I also cook some pasta.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup frozen peas (60 g)
- 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels (120 g)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 chopped onion
- 1 chopped carrot
- 1/2 chopped red bell pepper
- 2 handfuls of chopped fresh kale or spinach (40 g)
- 1 15-ounce can chickpeas (400 g), drained
- 1 tsp brown or coconut sugar
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika. We used hot paprika, but you can use sweet paprika if you want
- Sea salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups oat flour or ground oats (180 g)
Instructions
- Cook the frozen peas and corn according to package directions.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion, carrot, red bell pepper and kale over medium-high heat for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Place the chickpeas, peas, corn, sautéed veggies and the rest of the ingredients, except the oat flour in a food processor and blend for a few seconds.
- Add the flour and blend again until well combined.
- Preheat the oven to 390ºF or 200ºC.
- Make balls with your hands.
- Place the meatballs onto a baking tray or a baking dish and bake for about 30 to 40 minutes or until they’re cooked.
- Serve with your favorite sauce. We love homemade tomato sauce or marinara, but it’s up to you. We also love to eat our balls with spaghetti and some fresh basil on top.
- Feel free to reheat or freeze these meatballs.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/8 of the recipe
- Calories: 226
- Sugar: 4.5g
- Sodium: 24mg
- Fat: 6.5g
- Saturated Fat: 0.9g
- Carbohydrates: 35g
- Fiber: 7.8g
- Protein: 8.7g
Did you make this recipe?
Please leave a comment below or tag a picture #simpleveganblog. We’d love to see what you cook!
Looks tasty and I will make them on my next off-day.
Thank you so much Serene!
I have tried lots of your recipes and they’ve been lovely. I want to make these balls but don’t want the recipe to go wrong for me. Please advise how many balls this recipe should make. If I make too many or too few, the cooking time will ruin my attempt. Many thanks.
Hi, I made this recipe today with little changes or substitutions:
Didn’t use kale or fresh spinach as I didn’t have it home;
Used sweet paprika, turmeric, cumin seeds, black pepper in addition to the oregano;
They were tasty and overall I’m quite happy with the recipe, but a little dry so next time I’ll try adding less of the oats, and perhaps replacing with breadcrumbs.
One question that came up just now:
In your blog in Spanish, the recipe mentions 400g of chickpeas whereas in here, it’s a 15oz can, which once drained will be around 240-300g.
Would it be possible to confirm the weight of chickpeas to use, as it might possibly impact the texture of the meatballs?
Thank you.
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Hi Rita! I’m so glad you liked it 🙂 We used 400 g chickpeas (14 oz)!
Would ‘smoked’ paprika work in this recipe along with using frozen ‘roasted’ corn or spinach in place of kale – looks very yummy – a friend just shared on FaceBook letting us know they freeze really well so recommended making several batches 👍🏼
Hi Jacque! I’ve never tried it myself, but I think it should work 🙂
These have potential but I’m going to try them with no oat flour next time. For me this ruined the taste even though I only added 110g instead of 180g. I will also miss out the sugar as I don’t think it was needed.
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Hi Tracy! Thanks a lot for your comment 🙂
My daughter lives these. The first time I made them I cooked them in my air fryer. I’m trying the oven this time. I don’t remember if I drained the chick peas the first time. The recipe doesn’t say drained but I did this time and though I was able to form them into balls, they seemed a little dry. Are the chick peas supposed to be drained? Love your website and have made quite a few recipes. Thank you!!
Hi Corinne! Yes, you need to drain the chickpeas 🙂
I made this recipe and my daughter loved it.
Thanks
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Hi Meenu! I’m so happy to hear that 🙂 You’re so welcome!
I made this recipe and it was delicious. I added dried sage and served with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables!
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Hi Lariza! Sounds so good 🙂 So glad you liked it!
This is a good base recipe. I am going to tweak the spices next time to try and get closer to the taste of ikea’s. I heard the suggestion of sage and bay leaves…? Tasty as is, though! I only added maybe… 1/2 cup of the oats. Any more would have made them dry, I personally think. Thanks!!
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Hi there! Thank you for your comment 🙂
These are a huge hit with my family. Even my elderly mother who is not wholly buying into eating Vegan loved these. We try to limit our salt and oil intake so we excluded those and we didn’t miss them. These meatballs are a little crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. With my homemade sauce we didn’t even use pasta with them, they held their own as a main dish. I just made more and froze them. Great recipe!
★★★★★
Hi Kristen! So glad to read that 😀 Sounds AMAZING!
i will make these meatballs for the Sabbath G-d willing
can’t wait to try it thank you so much for all your great recipies
Muchas Gracias
Hi Channah! You’re so welcome 🙂 Hope you enjoy it!
Thank you very much for this recipe. It’s Delicious. I will suggest people to make nuggets and burger patties with the same ingredients. I think it will be a great deal to add variety and it is so easy.
Hi Carmen! So glad you liked it 🙂 It’s a great idea, I’ve never thought about making nuggets and patties with this recipe!
Thanks for sharing this pin! I just recently started eating a vegan diet and my husband vegetarian! We wanted spaghetti and meatballs (w/o the meat) I tried your recipe and we love it, a very easy recipe!! My hubby says they are very “flavorful”! ????
Hi Carla! You’re so welcome 🙂 So glad you liked it!
I made this last night and it was a hit! I found it flavorful and really takes off with a homemade tomato sauce. Mine turned out crisp on the outside and a little moist on the inside. I didn’t use oil, ground the oats and added more kale ~ still delicious! Thank you for sharing the recipe. Will try making your tomato sauce next!
★★★★★
Hi Claire! I’m so glad you liked it 😀 Have a nice day!
Does 1/2 cup of frozen peas weight half of what a 1/2 cup of frozen corn does? I’m making these now and used a 1/2 cup of both the peas and corn, but I’m concerned about the weight measurement.
Hi Suzy! Yes, the weight is right 🙂 Hope you enjoy the meatballs!
Thanks for the reply! I did just pull out my scale. 1/2 cup of corn weighs about 60 grams, 1/2 cup of peas weighs less than 40. So if the weights are correct, I assume the measurements are not. Either way, I was not impressed, sadly, with the meatballs. The flavor was very good, but they were quite dry, even after a good dousing with organic bbq sauce. I did drain the chickpeas, although the recipe did not say “drain and rinse.” Should the liquid have been added as well? I know the aquafaba acts as an “egglike” agent. I’m not sure if that would have made them less dry. Thank you for the recipe and reply.
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Hi Suzy! I used cups and also weighed the ingredients when I made the recipe, so the weights are correct. Maybe I used a different type of corn or peas. My meatballs were not dry at all, try to add more liquid or oil next time. No, I rainsed and drained the chickpeas as well. Have a nice day!
have you tried other flours? i am allergic to oat but want to try this recipe .
Hi Erica! No, I haven’t, but I think you could also use breadcrumbs or any other flour 🙂
Please join Pinterest or have an option to save so I can have this to use later.
Hi Pati! We’re on Pinterest: https://es.pinterest.com/simpleveganblog/ Besides, you can pin every single recipe, just clicking the Pin it button that is in the top left corner of every picture. Have a nice day!
Also, if you’re using Chrome, you can go to File/Save Page As. (Other browsers I’ve used also had ways to save pages for offline use.)
¡Riquííísimo! I’ve just made the sauce and it’s beautiful! Thank you for your lovely recipes ?
Hi! Gracias 🙂 You’re so welcome Su!