Hairy Bikers Veggie Meatballs Recipe

Aubergine is the base of these Hairy Bikers veggie meatballs from Veggie Feasts, not lentils or beans like most vegetarian meatball recipes use. Finely diced aubergine gets browned with onion and tapenade, then mixed with cheese, smoked paprika, and toasted pine nuts before baking at 200°C.

The headnote says “the aubergine gives them a good robust texture” and then asks “who needs meat?” which is a fair question once you taste how well the tapenade and smoked paprika work together. The olive saltiness from the tapenade replaces the savoury depth that meat normally provides.

Chilling the mixture for 30 minutes before shaping is the step most people would skip, but it firms up the breadcrumb and cheese binding so the balls hold together during baking. Without that rest, they spread on the tray and come out flat rather than round.

Hairy Bikers Veggie Meatballs Recipe

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Baking Cuisine:British Italian Courses:Main Course

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 40 minutesCook time: 20 minutesRest time: minutesTotal time:1 hour Servings:4 servingsCalories:320 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

Finely diced aubergine browned with onion and tapenade, mixed with grated hard cheese, toasted pine nuts, smoked paprika, and fresh parsley, then chilled, shaped into 20 balls, and baked until crisp. Served over spaghetti or linguine with tomato sauce and grated cheese.

Ingredients

For the Meatballs:

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, very finely chopped
• 2 large aubergines, very finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed or grated
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp tapenade
• 75g fresh breadcrumbs
• 50g vegetarian hard cheese, finely grated
• 25g pine nuts, toasted and finely chopped
• 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
• 25g parsley, finely chopped
• 1 egg, beaten
• Sea salt and black pepper

To Serve:

• 500g spaghetti or linguine
• Tomato sauce
• Sprigs of basil
• Vegetarian hard cheese, grated

Instructions

1. Brown the aubergine: Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the onion and diced aubergine. Cook over a medium-high heat until both are nicely browned, then add the garlic, oregano, tapenade, and plenty of salt and pepper. Cook for another couple of minutes, then take off the heat and leave to cool.
2. Mix the balls: Put the breadcrumbs, cheese, and pine nuts into a large bowl. Add the paprika and parsley, season, then stir in the cooled aubergine mixture and the beaten egg. Put the bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.
3. Shape and bake: Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Shape the mixture into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball, roughly 30g each. You should end up with about 20. Arrange on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes until crisp and brown.
4. Serve: Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water. Warm the tomato sauce, add the baked meatballs, and heat through. Serve over the pasta with basil and plenty of grated cheese.

FAQs

Why use aubergine instead of lentils?

Most vegetarian meatball recipes use lentils or beans as the base, but aubergine gives a firmer, meatier texture once it has been browned and baked. The official Hairy Bikers website has a different meatless meatball recipe using lentils, spinach, and Moorish spices, but this Veggie Feasts version takes a completely different approach.

Aubergine absorbs oil during the initial frying, which gives each ball a richness that lentils struggle to match. Combined with the tapenade and grated cheese, the result tastes more like a proper meatball than any lentil version can.

What does tapenade do in the recipe?

Tapenade is a paste made from olives, capers, and anchovies, and in this recipe it replaces the salty savouriness that meat normally provides. One tablespoon is enough to season 20 meatballs without making them taste of olives, because it blends into the aubergine during frying.

This is the same logic as the Swedish meatballs which use anchovy fillets for background salt, but tapenade suits the Mediterranean flavour of aubergine and smoked paprika better. Check the label if cooking for vegetarians, because some tapenade brands include anchovies.

Why chill the mixture for 30 minutes?

The fridge time firms up the breadcrumbs, cheese, and egg so they bind the aubergine into a mixture you can actually shape. Straight from the pan the mixture is too soft and warm to hold a ball shape, and it would spread flat on the baking tray.

Thirty minutes is enough for the cheese to set and the breadcrumbs to absorb the moisture from the aubergine. If you are short on time, 15 minutes in the freezer works instead but check every few minutes because frozen edges make the balls cook unevenly.

Why toast the pine nuts before adding them?

Toasting the pine nuts in a dry pan for two minutes before chopping brings out a deeper, nuttier flavour that raw pine nuts lack. Raw pine nuts taste bland and waxy, but toasted ones have a sweetness that works with the smoked paprika.

The spaghetti and meatballs from Everyday Winners also use pine nuts, but those toast during the 15 minutes of baking. This recipe toasts them first because the aubergine mixture is wetter and the pine nuts might not crisp properly inside a damper ball.

Can I make the balls and sauce ahead?

The headnote says “you can make the balls and the tomato sauce in advance, if you like, then supper is dead easy to put together.” Shape and bake the balls, cool them completely, and store in the fridge for up to two days.

Reheat by dropping the cold balls into warm tomato sauce and simmering for five minutes until heated through. They also freeze well for up to a month, and reheating from frozen takes about 10 minutes in the sauce.