[Andrew Gubb]

I just wrote this recipe up for my recipe site and thought it was so good it was worth sharing. I really think this recipe could convert someone who was on the wall and worried about missing out on his favourite foods. I bet I could even get someone not to notice it wasn't meat

I blow my own trumpet, but I really love this recipe. Tell me how it was for you if you try it.

These meatballs are the best. Really the best, everyone loves them. I wanted to make a vegan meat substitute so good, and so easy, that anyone who preferred to kill cows than eat these would have to be a sadist. Packed full of flavour, rich and filling too. I think this is the best vegan meat I've ever had. If I say so myself

The base of this stuff is puréed lentils, not tofu (highly toxic) or seitan (indigestible and overly processed). I think it's a very healthy recipe. Lentils, apart from having a dark meaty appearence and a rich meat-like flavour, have at least as much protein as beef, and about 3 times as much iron. According to Wikipedia, <i>Health</i> Magazine has rated lentils among the 5 most healthy foods.

The sesame seeds in this recipe contain about 10 times the amount of calcium as their weight in milk too - and plant sources are much more easy for the body to absorb than milk - so don't go around saying vegans don't eat well, ya bastard.


Vegan meatballs made with lentils, almonds and sesame seeds.

For 3-4 people.

Ingredients:

(I measured all of the components in a measuring jug, by volume, because my scales aren't working. You know, I think it's easier like that - who knows, I may be starting a revolution in how recipes are presented).

200 ml dry brown lentils.

500 ml water

100 ml soy sauce

1 medium onion

250 ml almonds

100 ml sesame seeds

100 nori seaweed in flakes (optional)

3 medium or leaning towards large carrots, grated

Two really compact fistfuls of fresh parsley. This will look like a lot when it uncompacts itself from your fist -- it's meant to, this is a parsley-packed dish.

About half a teaspoon of salt should be enough after all that soy sauce - do this by taste though

And a good dash of black pepper.

So, dump all the ingredients except the carrot and the parsley in a saucepan and start cooking them all together. We're really trying to cook the lentils and the onion here, so you can start those cooking first and then add the rest as you go about measuring them, to save time.

When the lentils have absorbed most of the water (they don't need to have absorbed all, and if you do this before they have done so you can avoid them sticking to the bottom of the pan by accident), leave them to cool for ten minutes. Then add the fresh parsley, take out your trusty hand blender, and make a purée out of all of this. It's nice to have the almonds still in fragments which you can feel in your mouth instead of total purée, but you don't want them to be almond-sized fragments, either. Just make sure the parsley is well blended. (The good thing about this way is you don't need to chop up the parsley... yawn).

When you're sure you've blended this all well, finally add the grated carrot.

Congratulations! You have a delicious lentil vegan meat mixture. Try some. Offer some for your mother to try.

Now, we want to fry this up. The amount I've described will fill up about two frying pans. Mould the mixture into flattened meatballs, and shallow fry until crunchy on both sides.

You can serve this with a tomato sauce boiled up with courgette slices like I did, served with alfalfa sprouts on the side. You can have them with pasta too. On that note, a vegan bolognese recipe is in order

Enjoy guys! I look forward to your feedback!

Andrew

Love,

Andrew