Every red-blooded American kid loves spaghetti and meatballs. My mom served her dry, balled up hamburger version at least once a week, and my siblings and I never tired of it. I can picture to this day how, if you didn't eat fast enough, the grease mom used to pan-fry the meatballs would rise to the top of the sauce and glisten there all blue and shiny like the droplets of motor oil our '69 Rambler routinely shed on the driveway... Mmm Mmm Good!
Ingredients:
1 lb spaghetti noodles
The Meatballs:
1 clove garlic
1 small onion, peeled (not chopped; you're going to do that in your food processor in a minute)
1 1/2 cups cooked brown lentils, rinsed and drained
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs, seasoned with:
2 tablespoon onion powder
2 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon basil
1-2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
The sauce:
Buy a jar of your favorite sauce, seriously... Or if you absolutely MUST "rough it":
2 - 16 oz. cans stewed tomatoes, do not drain
1 - 32 oz. can tomato sauce
1- 12 oz. can tomato paste
1 tbsp. sugar
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 lg. onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 teaspoons basil
2 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 shake chili powder
1 teaspoon. salt
1 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
Directions:
The breadcrumbs:
If you can find a commercial brand of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs that are vegan, by all means use those. Most have egg in them, though. If that's your dilemma, leave 4 or 5 slices of bread out overnight to get good and stale. Next day, crumble the stale bread into a mixing bowl. Crush well with something heavy (I used a tomato paste can... It was small and handy...). To the crushed breadcrumbs add:
2 tablespoon onion powder
2 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon basil
1-2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Mix thoroughly.
The Meatballs:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a food processor fit with a standard "S" shaped chopping blade, pulse the garlic until it is finely chopped. Add the onion and pulse until finely minced. Don't leave any big chunks of onion – mince thoroughly! Transfer to a mixing bowl and set aside.
3. Now combine the cooked lentils, nutritional yeast, wheat gluten, soy sauce, tomato paste, olive oil and water in the food processor and pulse a few times until everything is well blended. Once everything gets thoroughly mixed, puree until smooth.
4. Add this mixture to the onions and garlic in the mixing bowl. Add the seasoned breadcrumbs. Knead everything together with your hands for a few minutes, until it turns into a nice dough you can work with. If the mixture is too soft, put the whole mixing bowl in the fridge for an hour or two. The cold will stiffen things up.
5. Form into approximately 1 1/2 " meatballs. Make as many as your batch of dough will make (unused meatballs make great leftovers, with or without the spaghetti).
6. Heat a Tablespoon or two of olive oil in a large skillet. Add the meatballs and roll them around in the skillet until they are thoroughly coated with oil. Continue cooking about 5 minutes, or until the meatballs have browned.
7. Transfer as many meatballs to a baking pan as it will hold (you may have to bake these in batches). Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and roll the meatballs around so they will cook evenly. Return the pan to the oven and bake an additional 10 minutes.
The sauce:
Did I mention you could just buy a jar of sauce?... But barring that, do this:
Sauté onion and green pepper in olive oil until onion is translucent. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer 2 to 3 hours.
The Presentation:
1. Cook the spaghetti noodles according to package directions. Divide between serving plates.
2. Arrange meatballs elegantly atop the noodles on each plate.
3. Top with the sauce and serve!
Childhood flashback alert: The meatballs created using this recipe taste remarkably like the "mini-meatballs" from a classic can of SpaghetiOs. I've never seen the little hoop-shaped noodles for sale dry at the grocery store, but I'll bet you can find them online. To recreate classic SpaghettiOs with meatballs, roll the meatball dough created above into cherry sized balls instead of 1 1/2 " lunkers. Follow the same cooking instructions. For the sauce, I recommend buying the cheapest jar of marinara you can find... Yum!