turkish chickpea balls with parsley, apricots, and toasted pine nuts; lemon-cilantro-mint soygurt; harvest grains couscous; spinach with moroccan-style beets

no, not that kind of turkey.  i’ve been wondering how to veganize a recipe at work that is probably the furthest from vegan we get: turkish lamb meatballs.  horrible, i know.  i was intrigued, however, but the combination of pine nuts and apricot jam, among other flavors.  and then, because i feel like all vegan/vegetarian “meats” are made from soy and/or wheat gluten, i wanted to add that challenge to my day off.  my partner is sick of the “vital wheat gluten taste” in the veganomicon-type meat substitutes i’ve been showing her how to make, and sometimes soy just seems so over-used and boring.

i researched and researched base recipes for vegan meatballs and neatballs and what have you, with very little luck.  if they didn’t contain tofu or tvp or seitan or gluten, they were made of nuts (which i thought might compete with the pine nuts).  then i remembered veggie-only falafel and koftas, and my quest could begin.  i also opted for dried apricots instead of jam, for texture and color.  just in case, i boiled some potatoes and scooped out some panko in case of some last minute binding issues, but there seemed to be just enough moisture and i needed neither.  add a flax egg for good measure, and i had some pretty tasty results for a first attempt at soy-free, gluten-free protein alternative.

these aren’t “meaty” in the sense of being chewy and toothsome.  they were a little dry and just faintly crispy on the outside, but stayed pretty moist in the middle.  the flavors were also nice, though i might try adding some lemon zest and another spice or two in order to punch it up a little.  i might also try tweaking a few ingredients to get a chewier texture, and see how they hold up in a sauce.  though they didn’t crumble, they weren’t terribly firm either and i feel they might have fallen apart in liquid.  i am not sure how pan-frying them would have changed the texture either; i was trying to watch the fat content a little with these and baked them instead.

despite my my list of issues, they were very okay with me, and also got a really positive response from my special ladyfriend, who was pleasantly surprised by their lack of those aforementioned ingredients.

turkish chickpea balls with apricots and toasted pine nuts (makes 16 balls): 

1 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 tbsp flaxmeal + 3 tbsp water
1 small yellow onion, minced (about 1/2 c)
1/4 c finely chopped parsley
1/3 c toasted pine nuts
1/3 c dried apricots, diced
1 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tsp olive oil

preheat oven to 400F. 

place chickpeas in a food processor and pulse into small pieces, scraping down the sides as necessary.  you don’t want a paste, but you don’t want any half-chickpeas floating around either.  whisk together the flax meal and water in a small cup or bowl until it thickens.  transfer the chickpeas to a small mixing bowl and stir in the flax mixture until well distributed.  then add the remaining ingredients and mix well.  it should look something like this:

using wet hands, firmly roll pieces of the mixture into walnut-sized balls and transfer them to a lightly greased baking sheet.  bake at 400F for 15 minutes, then turn over and bake an additional 10 minutes.  to reheat, pan-fry in a little olive oil.

formed balls before baking

to serve these, i made a yogurt-style sauce with lemon juice and zest, fresh mint, fresh cilantro, a little salt, and silken tofu (didn’t have any forethought to create a non-soy yogurt).  we also cooked some harvest grains couscous from trader joe’s, and i made moroccan-style beets (based on an ancient blog entry which seems terribly inaccurate and i intend on removing until i figure out what is going on) over baby spinach.  delicious!