Meatless Meatballs

Original recipe here

Meatless Meatballs

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 pound fresh white mushrooms, finely chopped
1 pinch salt
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats (we used rolled instead)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, very finely shredded
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, packed
3 eggs, to add separately
1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 pinch dried oregano

Directions

(As adapted from Chef John's original recipe)

Chop and mince mushrooms, onions, garlic, etc.

Chopped mushrooms

Meatlessball ingredients

In a skillet on med-high, heat olive oil then add mushrooms and sprinkle with salt. Cook until liquid completely evaporates then add the butter and reduce the heat to medium. Cook about 5 more minutes until brown.

Mushrooms cooking

Adding butter to brown the mushrooms

Stir the onion into the mushrooms and cook until translucent, about another 5 minutes. Take it off the heat and stir the garlic in and continue stirring about 1 minute. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool.

Mix oats into mushroom mixture until thoroughly combined. Gently stir 1/2 cup of parmesan into mixture. Add bread crumbs, 1/4 cup parsley, and 1 egg; season with salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and oregano. Mix with a fork.

Mushroom mixture, bread crumbs, parsley, parmesan, 

salt, pepper & 1 of the eggs, uncombined

Stir in another egg. Mix together with a fork until crumbly and the finally stir in remaining egg. We had to add an extra egg because we substituted quick oats with rolled oats, which seem to absorb a lot more moisture. Mixture should hold together when pressed.

Meatless meatball mixture

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Chef John says at least 4 hours and for best flavor and texture, refrigerate overnight, but we only refrigerated ours for 2 1/2 hours and they were still fantastic.

Go find something else to eat at this point. We had hummus and pitas.

Remove from fridge. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Form mixture into small meatballs. Roll meatballs lightly between your hands until smooth and arrange meatballs on prepared baking sheet.

Uncooked meatless balls

Bake in the preheated oven until meatballs are lightly golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

Cooked meatless balls