Divine beetroot meatballs recipe with a cannellini bean base, walnuts for healthy fats and umami flavours, packed with fibre. Serve as a regular meatball with sauce and pasta, in a sub, or serve as a falafel alternative with salad or fries.
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
As I said, these balls have a great balance of macronutrients to help keep you satiated. The following information is based on one serving of five balls without pasta or sauce. They’re shown here with a 75g serving of pea pasta, which provides an additional 18g of protein and 6g of fibre.
Each five beet ball serving contains 175 calories, 5g of fibre and 6.5g of protein. One serving also contains 40% of your daily manganese and over 20% of your daily folate.
INGREDIENT CHOICES AND SUBSTITUTIONS
I used cannellini beans for this recipe, but you can swap those for the same value of any alternative bean. If you want to make them more vibrant in colour and have the red of the beets really pop, I recommend swapping the cannellini beans for red kidney beans. You could also swap the beans for cooked lentils too, which will make the recipe slightly higher in protein and provide more iron.
Walnuts can be swapped for pecans, but I don’t recommend swapping them for something sweeter like almonds or hazelnuts.
If you don’t have any issues with gluten, you can swap the gluten free breadcrumbs for regular breadcrumbs. My favourite GF breadcrumbs are the Esgir Gluten Free Crunchy Crumbs.
HOW TO STORE AND KEEP
If you have leftover meatballs that haven’t been cooked yet, simply store them in an airtight container and keep them refrigerated for up to three days. Cook as instructed below when you’re ready to eat them.
Any cooked meatballs can also be stored in a container in the fridge and they’ll keep for up to five days. To reheat, preheat your oven to 190 and place your balls on a tray. Cook for 10-15 minutes until warmed through again. Make sure they are hot in the centre before serving.
BEETROOT MEATBALLS RECIPE
Divine beetroot ‘meatballs’ recipe with a cannellini bean base, walnuts for healthy fats and umami flavours, packed with fibre
This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, soy free and vegan friendly. It does contain nuts.
Beetroot Meatballs Recipe
Divine beetroot ‘meatballs’ recipe with a cannellini bean base, walnuts for healthy fats and umami flavours, packed with fibre
Course Dinner, Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Keyword Beetroot Meatballs
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 4
Calories 161 kcal
Ingredients
- 1 small red onion use ½ if yours is large
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 medium cooked beetroot
- 1 can cannellini beans drained and rinsed
- ½ cup GF breadcrumbs
- 1/3 cup walnut halves
- 1 tbsp corn flour
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400°F/200°C. Get a non-stick baking tray, or line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
- Add your onion, garlic and beetroot to a food processor and process until they’re well chopped.
- Add your beans and process until we’ll combined.
- Add the walnuts and herbs to the food processor and pulse until combined.
- Slowly add the breadcrumbs and continue to pulse. If the mixture is still too moist, add the corn flour prior to rolling the balls.
- Roll into 20 balls and place onto the baking tray.
- Bake the beet balls for 25 minutes, turning halfway through.
