These baked lentil meatballs are perfectly tender on the inside, firm on the outside, and loaded with so much flavor! This will be your new go-to vegan meatball recipe! Enjoy these easy vegan meatballs with a big bowl of spaghetti for the ultimate comfort food meal! Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free, and nut-free.
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Skip the store-bought frozen meatballs, this is going to be your new favorite go-to vegan meatball recipe! These lentil meatballs have so much flavor and they have the best texture! The inside is perfectly tender and moist but the outside is firm but not dry. I guarantee that these lentil meatballs won't fall apart on you, they have a perfect consistency!
Pair these easy to make lentil meatballs with your favorite noodles and tomato sauce for the ultimate vegan comfort food dinner! Keep reading to find out how to make crowd-pleasing vegan meatballs in just a few simple steps.
What are Vegan Meatballs Made of?
Instead of meat, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, and eggs, vegan meatballs are made with a hearty base of legumes, gluten-free oats instead of breadcrumbs, cheesy nutritional yeast instead of parmesan cheese, a vegan egg (I used a flax egg) to hold everything together, a vegetable to keep it moist (I used mushrooms), and lots of seasonings for flavor!
This vegan Italian meatball recipe consists of:
- French Lentils
- Quinoa
- Oats
- Raw Hulled Sunflower Seeds
- Cremini Mushrooms
- Tomato Paste (This is my favorite brand because it's in a glass jar, it's organic, and has no added salt!)
- Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
- Nutritional Yeast (I love this brand because it's non-GMO)
- Italian Seasonings
- Garlic Powder
- Dried Parsley
- Dried Basil
- Flax Egg
How to Make Lentil Meatballs
Step #1 - Start by boiling 3 cups of water in a medium-sized pot. When the water boils, season it with salt and add ¾ cup of rinsed and drained uncooked french lentils. Reduce the heat to medium and set a timer for 24 minutes.
When there are 12 minutes left on the timer, add ¼ cup of uncooked quinoa to the pot with the lentils and give it a stir to combine. Let the lentils and quinoa continue cooking together until there is no water left in the pot. (It should take a total time of 23-24 minutes to cook the lentils and quinoa from start to finish.)
Step #2 - Let the cooked lentil quinoa mixture cool for a few minutes. While it's cooling, add 1 tbsp of ground flaxseed and 3 tbsp of water to a small bowl. Mix it together and put it in the fridge to thicken for 10 minutes.
Then, use a coffee grinder or small blender cup to grind sunflower seeds into a powder.
Step #3 - Pour the lentils and quinoa into a large food processor (this is the 13 cup food processor that I use and love!). Add the roughly chopped cremini mushrooms, diced red onion, old fashioned oats, blended sunflower seeds, tomato paste, vegan Worcestershire sauce, nutritional yeast, Italian seasonings, minced garlic cloves, dried basil, dried parsley, salt, pepper, and the flax egg.
Step #4 - Pulse the filling on high for 1-2 minutes or until all the ingredients are broken down and combined. The mixture will be sticky but that's normal. (A wet batter makes moist lentil meatballs, a dry batter would result in dry vegan meatballs.)
Step #5 - Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is heating up, line a large baking tray with parchment paper. Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to scoop the filling out of the food processor into your hand and then use your palms to roll the filling into golf ball-sized vegan meatballs. The filling will make 14-15 large vegan meatballs.
Step #6 - Arrange the vegan lentil meatballs on the tray and bake them for 15-18 minutes. Serve the hot lentil meatballs with tomato sauce or marinara and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast (or vegan parm) over your favorite noodles or zoodles.
What Else Can You Make with This Lentil Quinoa Mixture?
This vegan lentil meatball filling is so versatile! You can use it to make easy vegan meatballs, veggie burgers, and vegan meatloaf, depending on what shape you form the filling into.
If you have leftover lentil meatballs and are tired of spaghetti, you can use the leftovers to make a vegan meatball sub or you could toss the meatballs in BBQ sauce for an easy BBQ lentil meatballs appetizer!
What Do I Serve Vegan Meatballs With?
If you make these oven baked lentil meatballs with spaghetti or zucchini noodles, you could also serve roasted broccoli, garlic balsamic brussels sprouts, or avocado arugula tomato salad on the side.
Notes & Substitutions
- Can You Use Canned Lentils? You can use (1) 14 oz can of lentils in place of the cooked lentils for this recipe.
- Mushroom Variations: You can use button mushrooms, cremini mushrooms, or portobello mushrooms.
- Lentil Substitutions: French lentils are my favorite for this recipe, but you could substitute green lentils, brown lentils, or chickpeas instead. Don't use red lentils because they're too soft and won't hold their shape as well.
- Make it Gluten-Free: If you need to use gluten-free spaghetti noodles, I like these organic brown rice noodles (they have the best consistency!).
- Where Do You Get Vegan Worcestershire? If you can't find it at your local grocery store you can buy vegan Worcestershire sauce, here.
- How Big Should the Lentil Meatballs Be? Try to shape the lentil mushroom meatballs filling into golf ball-sized meatballs that are 1 ½ inches wide by 1 ½ inches high.
Success Tips
- Make sure you use ground flaxseed (not whole flaxseeds) for the flax egg.
- If you accidentally over blend the meatball filling, add more oats and mix it until you can shape it into solid balls.
- Use a medium-sized ice cream scoop to scoop out the lentil mushroom filling into your hand to make meatballs that are uniform in size.
- Depending on how hot your oven is, the perfect amount of time to bake these homemade vegan meatballs is for 15-18 minutes. They will be firm on the outside and moist on the inside.
- You can store the leftover lentil meatballs in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days. You can also freeze the lentil meatballs for a future meal.
More Vegan Lentil Recipes You'll Love!
49 Super Tasty Lentil Recipes for Lentil Lovers!
Roasted Portobello Mushrooms with Pea Pesto Lentils
Creamy Coconut Lentil Chickpea Spinach Soup
One-Pot Sweet Potato Lentil Chili
Vegan Italian Lentil Quinoa MeatBalls
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Medium-Sized Pot
- Large Baking Tray
Ingredients
- 3 cups water
- ¼ cup uncooked quinoa rinsed & drained
- ¾ cup uncooked french lentils rinsed & drained
- 5 oz cremini mushrooms (about 5 large mushrooms)
- 1 cup red onion diced (one small onion)
- 1 cup gluten-free old fashioned oats (or gluten-free bread crumbs)
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 3 tbsp water
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds ground
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp vegan worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 garlic cloves minced (or 1 tsp garlic powder)
- 1 tbsp Italian seasonings
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- ½ tsp Himalayan pink sea salt more to taste
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Start by boiling 3 cups of water in a medium-sized pot. When the water boils, season it with salt and add ¾ cup of rinsed and drained uncooked french lentils. Reduce the heat to medium and set a timer for 24 minutes.
- When there are 12 minutes left on the timer, add ¼ cup of uncooked quinoa to the pan with the lentils and give it a stir to combine. Let the lentils and quinoa continue cooking together until there is no water left in the pot. It should take a total of 23-24 minutes to cook the lentils and quinoa.
- Let the cooked lentil quinoa mixture cool for a few minutes. While it’s cooling, add 1 tbsp of ground flaxseed and 3 tbsp of water to a small bowl. Mix it together and put it in the fridge to thicken for 10 minutes.
- Then, use a coffee grinder or small blender cup to grind sunflower seeds into a powder.
- Pour the lentils and quinoa into a large food processor (this is the 13 cup food processor that I use and love!). Add the roughly chopped cremini mushrooms, diced red onion, old fashioned oats, blended sunflower seeds, tomato paste, vegan Worcestershire sauce, nutritional yeast, Italian seasonings, garlic powder, dried basil, dried parsley, salt, pepper, and the flax egg.
- Pulse the filling on high for 1-2 minutes or until all the ingredients are broken down and combined. The mixture will be sticky but that’s normal. (A wet batter makes moist lentil meatballs, a dry batter would result in dry vegan meatballs.)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- While the oven is heating up, line a large baking tray with parchment paper. Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to scoop the filling out of the food processor into your hand and then use your palms to roll the filling into golf ball-sized vegan meatballs. The filling will make 14-15 large vegan meatballs.
- Arrange the vegan lentil meatballs on the tray and bake them for 15-18 minutes. Serve the hot lentil meatballs with tomato sauce, a sprinkle of nutritional yeast (or vegan parm), and serve the meatballs over your favorite pasta.
Notes
- Make sure you use ground flaxseed for the flax egg, not whole flax seeds.
- If you accidentally over blend the meatball filling, add more oats and mix it until you can shape it into balls.
- You can use a spoon or an ice cream scoop to scoop out the lentil mushroom filling into your hand.
- Try to shape the lentil quinoa mushroom filling into golf ball-sized meatballs that are 1 ½ inches wide by 1 ½ inches high.
- Depending on how hot your oven is, the perfect amount of time to bake these vegan meatballs is for 15-18 minutes. They will be firm on the outside and moist on the inside.
- Store the leftover vegan meatballs in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days or freeze them for a future meal.
Nutrition
*This recipe was originally published on 1/26/16, but I updated it with new pictures and better recipe instructions on 9/17/19.
Sounds delicious! Will try it this week! Thank you, your blog is great!
Thank you so much, Justyna! I hope you enjoy it!
Yum!! I love this recipe. Just wondering instead of making meatballs could I make a meatloaf? I wasn't sure if it would be too dense.
Hello! I have a meatloaf recipe on my website too. It's very similar to the meatball recipe and it's delicious! I hope you give it a try!
Amazinggg!! Tastes just like meat 🙂
Thank you, Sora!
Hi Stacey so I have made the balls and have zucchini noodles ready to go but is there a sauce recipe??
Hello! No recipe for the sauce, I just used a jarred marinara sauce.
Hello! I just made these and they are delicious and packed with flavor. However, the middle of them were very mushy. Are they supposed to be mushy in the middle? (Full disclosure- I forgot the flax egg, not sure this is the result). Any tips would be greatly appreciated! TIA!
Hi Shannon! They should be slightly soft in the center, but not mushy. The flax egg does help bind the ingredients together, so that might very well be the issue. Did you drain all the excess water from the lentils? That could also add more liquid to the mixture. I would try baking them a little longer and see if that helps to firm them up a bit. Hope that helps, thank you for the feedback!
Hi Stacey so I have made the balls and have zucchini noodles ready to go but is there a sauce recipe??
Can these be prepped the day before and stored in the fridge or will they be dry?
Yes, you can do that!
starting your meal plan this week and I'm so excited to try this! i only have a ninja blender, will I be able to make this work?
Hi Samantha! Does your blender have a pulse button? I think a blender would work, just try not to overmix it too much. Let me know if you have any other questions!
I would love to try these bit I only have a blender and a 4 cup food processor . Should I bread the process the recipe in batches ?
Your thoughts
Hi Liri! You could definitely do the recipe in batches. That would work fine. Just transfer each portion to one big mixing bowl after you process it and mix it together by hand at the end.
I am not familiar with vegetarian or vegan recipes. Could you please tell me what the nutritional yeast does in this recipe. How does it impact upon taste? If I don't have nutritional yeast, is there something else I could use as a substitution?
Hey Connie! Nutritional yeast adds a savory, cheesy flavor. If you don't have it, you can omit it from the recipe without using a substitution. No problem. I hope you enjoy!