Vegan meatballs, made with just 8 ingredients and a delicious homemade marinara sauce. They’re gluten-free and perfect for pasta, sandwiches, and more.
vegan meatballs
vegan meatballsI ate hundreds or even thousands of meatballs when I was a child and I (almost) always order meatballs if I can find them at a vegan restaurant. I’m a meatball lover and I promise you this recipe is a keeper.
It’s adapted from my mom’s meatballs recipe, but she made a sauce with onions and a lot of extra virgin oil, and I prefer to use my marinara sauce because it’s healthier and also lower in fat.
I’ve already posted two more meatball recipes on the blog, but this one is even simpler and incredibly delicious. Besides, as black beans are great to make prepare alternatives, I wanted to create a meatball recipe using them.
This is a pretty basic way of making vegan meatballs and you can add any veggies, spices, herbs or ingredients you want. If you don’t eat oil or are looking for a low-fat recipe, just make the marinara with no oil and bake the meatballs instead of sautéing them. Your meatballs will be super tasty as well!
what ingredients do you need to make vegan meatballs?
- Oats – Use gluten-free oats if needed. If you can’t eat oats, you could use breadcrumbs or almond meal instead, just add more or less if needed.
- Black beans – They’re my favorite beans to make meat alternatives, but any other type of beans will do.
- Nutritional yeast – If you can’t eat or find nutritional yeast, use bread crumbs or almond meal instead. You could also add more oats. Add more or less if needed.
- Garlic – Fresh garlic is the best choice, but you could omit it or use some garlic powder instead.
- Parsley – This is an optional ingredient, omit it if you want. Fresh basil is also a good alternative.
- Salt – I always use Himalayan pink salt. Any type of salt is okay though.
- Ground black pepper – Fresh ground black pepper tastes best. However, I find store-bought ground black pepper more convenient and also easier to measure with a teaspoon.
- Flax egg – I haven’t tried this recipe using another egg replacer, but I think it should work.
- Marinara sauce – Homemade marinara sauce is more inexpensive, super healthy and so easy to make. Store-bought is a good choice as well though.
- Vegetable stock or water – I prefer to use vegetable stock because it enhances the flavor of the sauce. However, water is okay too. Making your own vegetable stock at home is a good idea, but feel free to use store-bought if you want.
tips for making vegan meatballs
- Add your favorite herbs (fresh or dried) and spices.
- Marinara goes really well with meatballs, but any other sauce will do.
- Some people use an ice cream scoop or a regular spoon to make the meatballs, but I prefer to use my hands.
- You could only use the marinara sauce, instead a combination of vegetable stock and marinara sauce, but I prefer my sauce not to be too thick, so I’m in love with this combo.
looking for more meat alternatives?
did you make this vegan meatballs recipe?
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Vegan Meatballs
- Prep: 30 mins
- Cook: 35 mins
- Total: 1 hour 5 mins
- 30 meatballs 1x
- Main dish
- Italian
- Vegan
Servings 30 meatballs 1x
Vegan meatballs, made with 8 ingredients and a delicious homemade marinara sauce. They’re gluten-free and so easy to make.
Ingredients
For the vegan meatballs:
- 1 cup oats (100 g), I used quick oats
- 1 and 3/4 cups canned black beans (500 g), or cooked from scratch
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (8 tbsp)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 1/2–1 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 flax egg
For the sauce:
- 1 batch of marinara sauce (about 2 cups or 500 ml)
- 1 and 1/2 cups of vegetable stock or water (375 ml)
Instructions
- Add the oats to a regular blender and pulse until they are ground into a powder-like consistency. Set aside.
- Add all the meatball ingredients to a food processor and blend until well combined. If you don’t have a food processor, add them to a large mixing bowl and mash with a potato masher, a fork, or use an immersion blender.
- Make balls with your hands (I made 30). Add to a plate and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
- Heat a little bit of oil (I used extra virgin olive oil) in a skillet or frying pan and sautée the meatballs over medium-high heat until golden brown. If you don’t consume oil, bake them at 350ºF or 180ºC until golden brown. Set aside.
- Add the marinara sauce and the vegetable stock to the skillet or frying pan, stir and bring to a boil.
- Cook the meatballs in the sauce over medium-high heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Serve your vegan meatballs immediately (I added some chopped fresh parsley on top), store the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 5-7 days, or in the freezer for 1 month. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
Notes
- Add your favorite fresh or dried herbs and spices.
- Marinara sauce goes really well with meatballs, but any other sauce will do.
- You could only use the marinara sauce instead of a combination of vegetable stock and marinara sauce, but I prefer my sauce not to be too thick, so I’m in love with this combo.
- Nutritional info has been calculated by using 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil to cook the meatballs.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 5 meatballs
- Calories: 296
- Sugar: 9.2 g
- Sodium: 982 mg
- Fat: 6.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 46.6 g
- Fiber: 14.9 g
- Protein: 14.2 g
Do you think the flavor profile of these veggie meatballs would go with bbq sauce as well as the marinara?
Hi Amelia! I think it could work 🙂
This has become a staple in our vegan/omnivore mix household! I add 2 rsp of liquid smoke to the meatball mixture and mushroom stock to the marinara which kicks it up a notch for me. I prefer this dish to traditional meatball for sure! Thank you!
★★★★★
Hi! Sounds so good 🙂 I’m glad you liked it!
I like the looks of your meat-balls, I have a can of black-beans in the pantry, so I will use that …..I will take a photo of the finished dish and sent to you..do let me know how I can do this as I am new to this sort of thing…Thanks….Querino
Hi! Have you got Instagram? Feel free to send the photo by DM (direct message) 🙂
This looks great! I’m not trying to be dumb, but the oats go in the meatballs right? It just says to set them aside but not what to do with them! Looking forward to trying this!
Hi Mandy! You have to add it to the food processor with the rest of the ingredients 🙂 Hope I have helped you and hope you like it!
Love them so delicious
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Hi Elissa! Thanks for your comment 🙂 So glad you loved our vegan meatballs! Have a nice day!
I just made these with 50% chickpeas and 50% black beans because it all I had. LOVING them! Eating them as I type this! Thank you for being such a reliable blog for my dinners!
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Wow, Kristin! Thank you for your kind words 🙂 So glad you liked our meatballs and our blog!
I made this very nutritious and easy recipe tonight. Not sure what I did wrong, but they were a bit gooey. So I chopped them up like a ‘mince’ and it was delicious. I cheated and used ready made sauce. Still delicious.
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HI Bev! Try to add more oats next time 🙂
wanted to let you know I thought this recipe was fantastic, didn’t have nutritional yeast or flax but worked out fine, was a bit dry just added liquid. Even my husband (who is a meat lover) said they were well edible. Can’t wait to try again, maybe with extra veg. I think if you like mushrooms they would go well.
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Hi Debbie! Thank you so much for your comment 🙂
Hi, I’m going to try these but my question is: Can they be frozen and if so before cooking??
Cheers 🙂
Hi Barbara! Yes they can, but I think it’s better to freeze them after cooking 🙂
I made these for a person recovering from cancer who is following a plant based diet. They are easy to make and delicious. So tasty that they disappeared long before my turkey meatballs! Thank you for sharing your recipes!!
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Hi Betsy! You’re so welcome 🙂 Hope he/she gets better really soon!
It’s a very tasty recipe and it turned out great. But I don’t understand I could only make 12 meatballs of that even though they were small. Otherwise perfect texture and taste. Thank you 🙂
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Hi Kristina! I’m so glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Hmm, this didn’t quite work out for us. My daughter liked them though asked for them to be smaller. She didn’t quite care for the gummy texture. Neither my son nor I cared for the texture or taste. My wife also commented about the texture. She said the taste was strong, but not unpleasant. SO, I’m going to try them again but this time I’m going to do them in a bowl and mash the beans with a fork and then mix everything together. Any thoughts on how to fix the gummy texture? I’m thinking it’s the beans being blended in the food processor.
I’m also going to check out your two other meatball recipes, too.
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Hi Jeff! My meatballs weren’t gummy, so I’m not sure. Maybe you could add more oats, or mash the beans, it could be a good idea. Hope it works!
Adding some chopped walnuts helps with the texture Jeff
I made this last night and they are fab! Really yummy and so easy to make.
Thank you
★★★★★
Hi Helen! So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Is the flavour of nutritional yeast powerful? I might try this recipe this weekend with pinto beans (got a can to use up) and use 4 tbsp nutritional yeast and 4 tbsp breadcrumbs…
2 more things:
1 – approximately what time and temperature would you do for these meatballs to bake them?
2 – how is your first name pronounced? It looks beautiful!
Hi Hayley! A little bit, but it’s delicious. I would bake them at 350ºF or 180ºC until golden brown 🙂 Thanks a lot, but I don’t know how to explain it if you don’t speak Spanish. It would be something like that: I = E, O = like the O in sOldier, SU = like SUbscribe, NE= like NEt. Have a nice day!
These were fantastic. I made the recipe almost exactly as is but I did use 1/4 cup breadcrumbs & 1/4 cup nutritional yeast instead of the full 1/2 cup. These didn’t even need to be chilled in the fridge – they held together right from processing and packing into balls. I baked them at 350 for 25 minutes total, turning halfway.
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
I’ve been using a frozen brand of meatballs but I am going to make this recipe. I like the fact that it is made with ingredients that I always have on hand.
I really appreciate the fact that you always include the nutritional information with your recipes. Yours are the consistently easiest, most universally appealing and most delicious vegan recipes on the internet. Thank you so much!
simple, and
Hi Mary! Thank YOU so much for your kind words 🙂 Have a nice day!
Loved this recipe, I have not made anything from your site that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed! You are so cute too:) Love your videos. Great work!! I would be lost without you:)
Hi Sue! Thanks a lot 🙂 So glad you liked the meatballs. Have a great day!
Isn’t that a bit too much sodium? it’s 50% of the daily recommended value in one serving!
Any substitute for the salt maybe?
Hi Francisco! Just use ingredients with no added salt (beans, marinara sauce and vegetable stock) 🙂
I wish vegetarian and vegan recipes would give the cup measurement for oat flour as well as the oats. I make my own oat flour and don’t like to make more when recipes call for it when I have some in the cupboard. Thanks
Hi Donna! I will include it in the next recipe 🙂 Happy New Year!!!