Easy Lentil Vegan Gluten Free Meatballs (Protein Rich With Gravy Recipe)
These Vegan Gluten free Meatballs, deep fried slowly over the stove top are tender, juicy and bursting with spicy and savory flavors! Made from gram flour, lentils, soya granules and green chilies, these succulent Protein Vegan Meatballs are amazingly delicious and a perfect swap for the classical meatballs!
Equipment
- 1 Blender for making thick paste for vegan gf meatballs
- 1 Pressure Cooker boiling veggies for gravy
- 1 heavy bottomed wok deep frying the vegan meatballs
- 1 heavy bottomed wok making the gravy
Ingredients
Ingredients for Vegan gf Meatballs
- ⅓ cup yellow lentils (Moong daal) 50 gm. Soak for 15 min
- ¼ cup soya granules soak for 15 min
- ⅓ cup gram flour can use chickpea flour or nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- 1 small fresh green chili
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- salt per taste
For Making Gravy
- 2 medium onions roughly chopped
- 3 medium tomato
- 2 tablespoon cashew
- 2 tablespoon gravy masala I have used GM brand
- 2 clove garlic
- 1 small green chili
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- salt as per taste
- 2 cups water
- 1 small cardamom whole
- 2 small cloves
- 1 medium cinnamon
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
For Making Vegan gf Meatballs
- Soak yellow lentils and soy granules for about 15 min. While they are soaked, you may wash vegetables and prep for gravy.
- Drain the water from yellow lentils. squeeze water from the soaked soy granules. Trust me they soak up so much water. Add lentils, green chilly, coriander leaves, soy granules, salt, red chili powder, lemon juice and gram flour in the blender. Blend it into a thick paste.Take the thick batter in a large bowl. You would now know that the balls can't be made with hands as the paste is not dry. If it would be dry, the meatballs won't be soft and would be dense. Add baking powder and don't over-mix. The batter is ready for deep frying the balls.Still, if you wish to make meatballs by hand, refrigerate the mixture for 20 min and add more of gram flour (at least ¼ cup more). Grease your hands and then make balls.
- Heat the refined oil in a heavy bottomed wok. Make sure that the oil is sufficiently hot or else the meatballs would break. You may put a chickpea size batter in oil for testing. If it rises, the oil is ready for frying. Let the flame be high when placing the meatballs. Place the meatballs with the help of spatula with spacing in between. Don't over or under full the wok as they would be under or over cooked in that case. Once you have reasonably covered the wok, slow the flame. Let the meatballs cooked on slow flame for 5 min. Flip them to fry from the other side. Flipping them with a knife tip is easier than the perforated spoon.You may have to fry them in batches. Once done, take out the fried vegan gluten free meatballs over a newspaper or a strainer.
For Making Gravy
- Gather all the ingredients. Wash vegetables. Roughly chop them. Add everything (except salt, powdered spices, oil) to a pressure cooker with water. Boil them on full flame for 2 whistles and on slow flame for 10 min.
- Cool off and drain the water in a bowl for adding later in the gravy. Blend the sieved veggies into a smooth paste. You may remove cinnamon from blending.In a large wok, add oil, cinnamon and the smooth paste, Let it cook for about 10 min on simmer. Gradually add store water. you may add more water as per the consistency you wish for.Add salt and spices. Cook for another 5 min on simmer.
- Serve the amazing vegan meatballs with rich cashew gravy and team it with noodles or rice. Enjoy!
Notes
- Achieving the perfect texture is crucial for vegan meatballs. Make sure to drain water from soaked lentils and soya granules completely.
- The texture won't be exactly like meat as this has no such ingredient. It would be similar to Falafel. If you want exact texture like meat, pls don't follow this recipe.
- Gram flour acts as a binding agent. If the blended mixture is sticky, you may add more of the gram flour.
- Make sure not to add any extra water when blending lentil, gram flour and other ingredients to make vegan meatballs.
- I would suggest not to make balls, rather use a spatula to place the batter in the hot oil. Don't worry if the shape is not perfectly round as there are many dense components involved. The texture and taste is more important than the shape. Highly recommend adding baking soda for bouncy balls.
- Aim for uniformity in size to ensure even cooking. Smaller meatballs may cook faster, while larger ones may need a little extra time, especially when deep fried. They may appear to be brown from out yet raw within.
- Make sure to add meatballs just before serving. If they are too soft, they might break. If they are too dense, they would absorb the gravy. This would help you store the leftovers easily.
- This recipe deep fries the meatballs. Make sure the oil is sufficiently hot and fry on slow flame. Take them out on high flame. You can bake, pan-fry, or even air-fry vegan meatballs.
- If you wish to still shape them in balls, freeze the mixture for 15 min and lightly oil your hands before shaping the meatballs to prevent them from sticking to your fingers. I always use spatula to leave them in the wok for deep frying. This way my hands are clean
- This recipe would make around 18-20 meatballs. The calories marked give an estimate of 2 dry vegan meatballs. The gravy per person (1 bowl) would be of 120 calories.
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving size: 2 | |
| Servings: 8 | |
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 96 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 5.6g | 7% |
| Saturated Fat 0.8g | 4% |
| Cholesterol 0mg | 0% |
| Sodium 41mg | 2% |
| Total Carbohydrate 7.6g | 3% |
| Dietary Fiber 1.4g | 5% |
| Total Sugars 0.6g | |
| Protein 4.2g | |
| Vitamin D 0mcg | 0% |
| Calcium 9mg | 1% |
| Iron 1mg | 5% |
| Potassium 93mg | 2% |
| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |