Broccoli Meatballs (Vegetarian & Gluten free Recipe)

These meatballs have nothing to do meat, they are completely vegetarian (skip the eggs and cheese -- you have totally vegan meatballs). They are made with broccoli and ground raw almonds with no bread crumbs for binding -- so these are gluten free too.
Recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine and the use of broccoli in meatballs was interesting to me, so I tried the recipe to see how these would taste. Ground almonds and eggs (or egg replacer) bind the meatballs together.

Almonds give a nutty taste to the meatballs while the broccoli makes them taste earthy and delicious. I was initially worried if the meatballs will hold together and if they would cook all the way through in the oven. I didn't have to worry much, the mixture came together beautifully even with the egg replacer substitution and baked perfectly in the oven.

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Vegetarian Eggplant Meatballs

Blogging Marathon# 31: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Meatless Dishes
Dish: Vegetarian Eggplant 'Meatballs'

'Meatless' Meatballs are one of my son's favorite dishes. I keep some store bought ones in the freezer for quick meal options. I posted a recipe using soy crumbles earlier. Today's recipe uses eggplant and I was surprised how moist and 'meaty' these meatballs taste (by 'meaty' I mean they have lot of body or bulk, don't know how else to express that :-)) 

Meatballs are great with some tomato sauce in pasta or on a salad or just to munch on as appetizer. I flavored these meatballs with mint and parsley to give them a Mediterranean flavor. I served them with homemade tzatziki and it was a very delicious combination.

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Meatless Meatballs with Soy Crumbles

My theme for this week's Blogging Marathon is "Lunchbox Recipes for Kids". Now this is a very challenging theme for me because of 2 reasons: One: my 5 year old has become a very picky eater and packing his lunch is quite a challenge most of the times. Two: Schools don't have microwaves to reheat the lunch, so whatever we pack has to taste good even at room temperature.

When my son was in kindergarten, his daycare had a very good lunch program. He had a vegetarian option everyday and the food was served hot. But now in kindergarten, school lunch menu has hot food everyday, but there are hardly any vegetarian options and so we have to pack him lunch. One thing we figured out is rice gets too cold and is tough to eat by lunch time, especially in winter. 

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