#CookAtSMU: Veggie Meatballs (aka Veggieballs)

Posted on July 24, 2014 Updated on July 24, 2014

Long time no blog, huh?

From vacations to being sick to planning other exciting Social Squad projects, blogging and cooking has taken a (regrettable) back burner.

But I’m back! And making Veggie Meatballs!

If you know me, you know I’m not the biggest meat eater (not a vegetarian, but usually gravitate towards the vegetarian options), so I was kind of excited to see veggie meatballs in Lidia’s Commonsense Cooking while I was collecting recipes for this project.

These “meat”balls offer a fresh alternative to regular meatballs and, after making them for this video, are one of my new favorite recipes. (I feel like I’m going to be saying that a lot about Lidia’s recipes)

In the video, I fried them, but, in the cookbook, Lidia says that they can be baked at 375 for 25 minutes. Since filming the video, I’ve made them one more time and ended up doing a combination of baking and frying (20 minutes in the oven, couple minutes on each side in a pan). I liked that a little better than just frying. Experiment with different combinations and let me know what you like best!

Now for the recipe!

To make 36 veggieballs, you’ll need:

• 4 medium-small Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled
• 3 medium zucchini, grated (squeeze the liquid out through a towel after grating)
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• Zest of 1 lemon, grated
• 1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano (I used parmigiano-reggiano)
• 1/2 cup chopped scallion
• 10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• Olive oil, for frying (or to grease baking sheet if you are baking them)

What you’ll do:

1. In a saucepan, cover the potatoes with water and cook until tender (you can poke them with a fork but they don’t stick).
2. Drain the potatoes. Let them cool enough to handle (which I DIDN’T do in the video and, let me tell you, it was not fun. Look out for THAT in a possible blooper video in the future!) and pass them through a potato ricer (if you have one. I didn’t and used a grater,  just make sure to use the smallest setting).
3. Add the zucchini, eggs, lemon zest, breadcrumbs, cheese, scallions, basil, and salt to the potatoes. Mix well (use your hands! Just wash your hands first)
4. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add a little olive oil to coat the pan. Make patties of the mixture and cook them in the hot oil, about 3 minutes per side. Add more oil if you need it.
5. Season with salt, while you drain the cooked veggieballs on paper towels.

And enjoy!

As always, let me know if you try out this recipe and how you like it!