Search Results for: vegan meatballs

Easy Vegan Meatballs

ByCassie Johnston January 20, 2020April 5, 2023

Whenever someone is hesitant to try out eating more meatless meals, one of my favorite things to do is show them just how comforting and hearty plant-based eating can be.

I think a common misconception about a plant-based diet is that it’s just a bunch of salads. So not true! A plant-centered meal can be just as hearty and stick-to-your-ribs-y as a meal with animal products. And this big ole plate of spaghetti and vegan meatballs is a perfect example of that.

I posted my first meatless meatball recipe back in 2011 after getting a recipe emailed to me by one of my coworkers. I was really happy with the taste of the recipe, but now looking back at it, the ingredient list was a little unwieldy. It had 17 ingredients just to make some daggum meatballs!

For years now, I’ve been working on perfecting that vegan meatballs recipe with these main goals in mind:

Reduce the ingredient list as low as possible (it’s down to 10 for the base recipe).
Use only pantry staples (the weirdest ingredient here is walnuts).
Keep it delicious, meaty, and hearty (it totally is).

After a whole lot of spaghetti and meatball dinners (like, a lot), I think I’ve finally landed on a really great, relatively simple, perfectly meaty, and delicious plant-based meatball recipe. Woohoo!

What are meatless meatballs made out of?

There are a lot of great meatless meatball recipes out there, but not a lot of great meatless meatball recipes that don’t call for specialty ingredients like tempeh or TVP or tofu or wheat germ or seitan. These vegan meatballs are made using only ingredients that are regularly kept in my pantry. They are all 100 recognizable—no soy protein isolate here! Here’s what’s in these meatballs:

Chickpeas
Onion
Garlic
Walnuts
Oats
Brown rice
Soy sauce (or tamari if gluten-free)
Ketchup
Herbs and spices

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Best Baked Chicken Meatballs Recipe

ByKaitlyn Bain May 16, 2022December 11, 2023

These baked chicken meatballs are a crowd-pleaser. Serve them up over pasta, in sandwiches, or with a dipping sauce.

Chicken meatballs are a staple in my house. They’re easy to prep, quick to make, and they go with just about anything!

Seriously, you can make these chicken meatballs and turn them into any meal you want. You can eat them as an appetizer, all by themselves, stuffed in a sandwich, tossed in some spaghetti—the list of possibilities is endless! The best part is that they’re super moist and practically melt in your mouth. Read the post »

Vegetarian Summer Orzo Salad Recipe

ByCassie Johnston August 16, 2023November 30, 2023

If you’re looking for a way to enjoy the bounty of fresh summer vegetables and herbs, this Vegetarian Summer Orzo Salad recipe is the recipe for you!

Overhead of orzo pasta salad in a white bowl on a light countertop.

This is one of my favorite recipes to make because it’s so versatile! This recipe for vegetarian summer orzo salad is great for a good summer potluck dish, an easy vegetarian dinner, or a good packed lunch. Really, this yummy filling recipe is perfect for just about any occasion!

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Arrabbiata Sauce (Pasta Arrabiata)

ByKaitlyn Bain January 4, 2023December 11, 2023

If you love spicy Italian food, you’ll love Arrabbiata sauce. We’ll show you how to make it in under 30 minutes.

Is your pasta night getting a little boring? If you’re ready to spice it up—literally—with a burst of savory flavor you’ve got to try making arrabbiata sauce! This classic Italian sauce takes only five minutes of prep work to cook up from scratch and it’s versatile enough to be used in a wide variety of dishes. If you’re a fan of spicy Italian foods, then this is a must try for you! The next time you have a craving for pasta, meatballs, or you need a dipping sauce for your pizza crust, take a half hour to whip up this rich pasta arrabbiata.

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Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Recipe

ByKaitlyn Bain September 12, 2022November 30, 2023

This creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta is a family favorite for busy weeknights—it’s sure to become one of yours, too.

On busy weeknights, it’s important to have a quick dish you can whip up for your family that you know they’ll love. This creamy sun-dried tomato pasta checks all the boxes! I love how fresh and creamy this sauce is! The sun-dried tomatoes make the dish burst with tomato flavor while the milk and cheese combine to make a rich and creamy sauce. It only takes 20 minutes from start to finish, and there aren’t any complicated ingredients. This is not your average pasta meal!

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Herbed Cucumber Tomato Salad

ByCassie Johnston August 4, 2022August 15, 2023

Herbed Cucumber Tomato Salad is the perfect salad to make on a hot day with juicy tomatoes, fresh cucumber, and herbs like parsley, basil, and cilantro.

This simple salad is actually probably way too simple to be called a recipe, but considering we’ve been known to eat it at every dinner in August, I figured it was probably time I shared it with you.

Like most simple recipes, the key to making this insanely flavorful is getting your hand on really great ingredients. I wouldn’t recommend making this in the middle of winter with hothouse tomatoes and cucumbers—you’ll be disappointed. This is definitely a summer-only recipe. Here, I’m using various heirloom tomatoes we’ve grown, but any fresh tomatoes would do the trick.

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Recipes | Side Dishes | Easy Family Dinners | Vegetarian | Easy Main Dishes

Simple Roasted Garlic Bread Recipe

ByKaitlyn Bain May 25, 2022April 4, 2023

Delicious and easy to make, this simple roasted garlic bread recipe is perfect for serving alongside nearly any meal.

Garlic bread is the perfect addition to a variety of meals from lasagna to pizza. It makes a great appetizer, snack, or side dish, and it’s incredibly simple to make. In under 15 minutes, you can have warm, buttery, roasted garlic bread ready to be devoured! Read the post »

Tried-and-True Recipe for Canning Spaghetti Sauce

ByCassie Johnston August 3, 2021April 14, 2023

This post is sponsored by the makers of Ball® home canning products.

Homemade spaghetti sauce is not out of your reach, and it tastes so much better than the stuff from the store! These simple steps will guide you to canning success.

It’s hard to beat boiling a pot of pasta and popping open a jar of spaghetti sauce for a speedy weeknight dinner that everyone in the family will love.

Sure, you can buy store-bought sauce, but why not get the best flavor out of homegrown summer tomatoes and can your own spaghetti sauce instead? We’re excited to partnering with the makers of Ball® home canning products to bring you a beginner-friendly spaghetti sauce recipe you’ll love!

The great thing about this spaghetti sauce recipe is that it’s designed and tested to be processed in a water-bath canner! While certain spaghetti sauce recipes need to be processed in a pressure canner because of their low acid levels, this recipe has been lab-tested to be water bath canner safe, making this a perfect recipe for beginner canners. Let’s make some sauce! Read the post »

How to Roast Spaghetti Squash for the BEST Noodles!

ByCassie Johnston October 24, 2019May 30, 2023

I never understood the big deal with spaghetti squash. Every time I tried to cook it, it would turn out mushy and watery. But then I ran across my friend Beth from Pass the Plants’s tutorial for how to cook spaghetti squash, and since Beth has never steered me wrong before, I figured it was time to try it again.

Her method of cutting a spaghetti squash crosswise instead of lengthwise totally changed my world! The resulting spaghetti squash noodles were long, tender, al dente, and not at all mushy. I took Beth’s method as inspiration and went to work on perfecting the method in my own kitchen, and now I’m happy to say we cook spaghetti squash at least once a week in our house! It’s a favorite, and I want to show you how it became one.

What does spaghetti squash taste like?

If you’ve never cooked spaghetti squash before, you might be wondering what it tastes like. I personally feel like spaghetti squash is one of the most mild flavored of the winter squashes. It has a very slight, sweet squash flavor—imagine a super watered down butternut squash. This mild flavor makes it a great vehicle for all kinds of your favorite sauces and toppings.

Can you eat the skin on a spaghetti squash?

Is the skin on spaghetti squash technically edible? Sure. Do you actually want to eat it? Nope. It’s a hard, thick, rough skin that turns even tougher in the oven. It wouldn’t be pleasant to eat, and probably wouldn’t make your tummy feel so hot.

Is spaghetti squash healthy?

Like all fruits and veggies, spaghetti squash is a healthy addition to almost everyone’s diet. Adding spaghetti squash to your weekly pasta bowl is a great way to boost the nutrition of dinner. It is also gluten-free, paleo, and grain-free, making spaghetti squash a great option no matter what diet works best for your body.

What’s the easiest way to cut a spaghetti squash?

So many people see a big, hard spaghetti squash and grab their biggest, baddest knife and then…get it stuck. A big knife is not the way to cut a spaghetti squash! Instead,the easiest way to cut a spaghetti squash is to use a small paring knife and work your way around the skin of the squash. It takes a bit longer, but the risk of cutting a finger off is much lower. Read the post »

Lentil Walnut Burgers

ByCassie Johnston February 28, 2017November 30, 2023

Okay, so putting walnuts in a burger might seem strange, but the walnuts add a great, hearty flavor and texture that makes these burgers feel super meaty. (It works so well that I use walnuts in my Vegan Meatballs, too!) These burgers also just have a little bit of sautéed, diced mushrooms in it to…

Holiday Recipes

The 27+ Best Christmas Appetizers

ByCassie Johnston December 16, 2021February 15, 2024

Planning a Christmas get-together? Find inspiration and easy recipes for the best appetizers to share this holiday season.

In our family, Christmas dinner is all about appetizers! Years ago, we traded in the traditional Christmas dinner for a family appetizer pitch-in, and it’s always a blast to enjoy different tastes from the smorgasbord.

We’ve pulled together our favorite Christmas classic appetizers for you to try in your family, and we’re sure you’ll love them! Some of these recipes have been making an appearance on our Christmas dinner table for decades. Merry Christmas and enjoy! Read the post »

Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad with Apples and Walnuts

ByCassie Johnston November 14, 2019May 30, 2023

The first time I made this shaved Brussels sprouts salad, I was deep in the midst of my standard holiday season merriment. Cookies, eggnog, and bourbon, oh my! After a few weeks of rich and decadent eating, I woke up one morning and my body said, “Hey, this has been fun, but let’s have something green today!” So I listened to my body’s intuition and headed to the kitchen to create this hearty, flavorful, and gloriously nourishing Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad.

I like to remind folks that for a diet to truly be healthy, you have to nourish both your body and your soul! And that means enjoying your favorite chocolate chip cookies and listening when your body asks for veggies. Tuning into your body’s innate wisdom is a skill that is honed over time. Don’t expect to be able to do it overnight—I sure as sugar couldn’t. But after a little bit of practice (and maybe some reading and homework), you’ll soon find the diet that makes both your soul and your body feel its best.

Shaved Brussels sprout salad is winter seasonal eating at it’s best!

This salad is such an excellent way to bring fresh, raw veggies to the dinner table in the winter without having to head out and buy $20 worth of out-of-season ingredients. You can nab almost all of the ingredients for this salad at your local winter farmers’ market (they have those where you live, too, right?). Brussels sprouts, onions, and apples are all excellent winter storage crops, meaning they’re readily available locally for most folks in the wintertime. Using fresh, in-season produce makes for a salad that tastes fresh and healthy, but is still hearty and filling—just like food should be when the temps are low.

You can grab Brussels sprouts on the stalk or off for the recipe, but just make sure to grab fresh ones. Frozen won’t do here. And while it’s technically spelled Brussels sprouts, whatever you call them—Brussels sprouts or brussel sprouts—they are a delicious way to nourish your body!

What do raw Brussels sprouts taste like?

You might be afraid to try raw Brussels sprouts (after all, they are so tasty roasted with some bacon and apples), but I promise raw Brussels sprouts are something you have to test out! In fact, if you are a Brussels sprout-hater, you have to try this salad out! The sulfur flavor that a lot of people dislike about Brussels sprouts comes from cooking (specifically, overcooking) the sprouts. When you eat them raw? No sulfur flavor. They taste like super sweet cabbage! Get the recipe »

18+ Zero-Waste Healthy School Lunch Ideas

ByCassie Johnston September 5, 2019October 4, 2022

We covered the how of waste-free lunch packing (if you didn’t check out that post, make sure you do—we link up and explain all the tools and tricks to packing zero-waste school lunches), and now it’s time to talk about the what. In this post, we’re giving you tons of healthy, easy-to-pack school lunch ideas. And every single one of them is waste-free.

You’ll find vegetarian, gluten-free, paleo, and grain-free school lunch ideas below, and I hope it gives you tons of inspiration! We’ll keep adding to this post as the school year goes on and more lunch inspiration strikes.

A couple important notes about the lunches you’ll see here:

My daughter is a kindergartener, and we tend to overpack her lunches to give her lots of variety and a built-in snack. Adjust quantities as suited for your children.
Our school is not a nut-free school, so you’ll see products that contain nuts in these lunches. Feel free to sub nut-free products.
My kid doesn’t do carrots, tomatoes, or berries—all three are great options for school lunches, so make sure to swap in your kid’s favorite fruits and veggies. We’re on a constant rotation of cucumbers/celery/peppers and grapes/melon/clementines/apples, but you don’t have to be!
Our school allows kids to have a small dessert with lunches. We don’t do this every day, but we do give her something 1-2 times per week.

Alrighty, let’s dig into the lunches. Read the post »

What are meatless meatballs made out of?

What does spaghetti squash taste like?

Can you eat the skin on a spaghetti squash?

Is spaghetti squash healthy?

What’s the easiest way to cut a spaghetti squash?

Shaved Brussels sprout salad is winter seasonal eating at it’s best!

What do raw Brussels sprouts taste like?

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