Last night I made the most delicious chickpea ‘meat’balls inspired by a vegan recipe I found on Minimalist Baker, and I just had to share it with you guys. Everyone loved it, they can be served so many different ways, and frozen for months if you’re a batch cooker.

What you’ll need:

1 can chickpeas (drained, rinsed and stored overnight in a tub in the fridge. Impatient me says you could probably get away without the overnight thing if you want to make them straight away)

1 brown onion

1 egg

1 tablespoon of minced garlic (be as liberal as you like, garlic is a lifestyle)

1/3 cup of parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons of italian or mixed herb seasoning

1/4 cup fresh parsley (I didn’t have any for mine, but the original recipe calls for it, and I can definitely see that it would be delicious)

1/2 cup of bread crumbs (or, to be honest, 2 slices of bread that you put into the food processor with all of this. Let’s keep it simple).

2 tablespoons of pasta sauce. Choose whatever you like (I used the Barillo Bolognese, but literally any would be fine).

*Extra* breadcrumbs and parmesan to roll the balls in, and olive oil to cook in.

I made about 16 golf ball sized balls, so if you want more, double your mix above.

How to make:

Dice your onion, and sauté in olive oil in a frying pan with the garlic for a few minutes until soft and flavourful.

Combine this with all of the other ingredients in a food processor, to make your mixture. It should end up soft, but moldable.

I left mine sit for a few hours until I was ready to roll, but you could use immediately. Roll into balls, and dip/roll into your combined breadcrumb and parmesan mix.

Cook in olive oil, and serve with pasta, sauce, mash, salad – anything you like! They’ll be soft, but crunchy and so tasty with the parmesan on the inside and out!

The kids made a point of telling me how much they loved these balls, and I devoured them so quickly – we will definitely be remaking soon! Chickpeas start at .80c a can, so this is a really affordable meal, a quick one to make (one food processor is basically all you need), and the kids can help with the rolling.