Description
Baked eggplant meatballs are a great way to enjoy a meatless meatball meal the whole family will love. These vegetarian meatballs are made with hearty roasted mushrooms and eggplant and blended, rolled and baked into flavor packed meatballs that are so good everyone will want the recipe!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 medium-size eggplant peeled and diced (about 2 cups)
- 1-pint baby Bella mushrooms (chopped)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cup cashews (pulsed in a food processor or crushed)
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 1 cup breadcrumbs (any kind will work)
- 1 large egg (lightly whisked)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cloves of garlic (minced)
- 1.5 tablespoons Italian seasoning
For serving
- 2 cups of your favorite tomato sauce
- Fresh chopped basil or parsley
- Shredded parmesan cheese
Instructions
Roast the veggies
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the diced eggplant to a medium-size mixing bowl, drizzle on one tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper and toss to coat. Spread the eggplant out evenly on half of the baking sheet.
- Add the sliced mushrooms to the same mixing bowl you tossed the eggplant in and drizzle them with one tablespoon of olive oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle on the Italian seasoning and pepper and toss. Do not add salt to the mushrooms or they won’t brown as well in the oven.
- Lay the mushrooms out evenly on the other half of the baking sheet that the eggplant is on and bake for 12-15 minutes in the preheated oven. Once the veggies are finished cooking, set them aside to cool for a few minutes, and sprinkle the salt over the mushrooms.
Make the meatless meatball mixture
- After the veggies are cooled, add them to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until they are minced and resemble ground meat. Pour the mixture into a medium-size mixing bowl. If you do not have a food processor, then you can still make these meatballs, but they may be a little chunkier. Just use a potato masher to mash them instead of a food processor.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. I just used my hands, but you can use a rubber spatula to mix everything up.
- Cover and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Form and bake the meatballs
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and turn the oven down to 400 degrees F.
- Using an ice cream scoop or just your hands, form about 15-20 even sized balls with the mixture and place them evenly onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in the 400F degree oven for 20-25 minutes until they are nice and golden brown.
Serve
- To serve: Heat some tomato sauce in a skillet on the stove to low heat. Once hot and starting to bubble toss the meatballs in the tomato sauce and let them cook for 1-2 minutes in the sauce. Plate, top with some fresh basil and grated parmesan, and ENJOY!
Notes
- How to pick a ripe eggplant. To choose a ripe eggplant, go for one that is small to medium in size and not too large since larger eggplant will not have as much flavor and tend to be less sweet and more bitter in taste. You also want to look for eggplant that has a smooth, shiny skin that is pretty uniform in color. Test ripeness by pressing a finger lightly on the skin of the eggplant. If it leaves an imprint then it is ripe!
- Best mushrooms to use in this eggplant meatball recipe. I always opt for baby Bella (cremini) or portobello mushrooms in all of my recipes since they are meatier in taste and pack more nutrition than white button mushrooms or shitake mushrooms.
- If you don’t want to use cashews, you can pulse other types of nuts like walnuts or almonds. Breadcrumbs also work fine in place of the cashews but I really love the added texture that the pulsed nuts give these meatballs.
- To make this vegan, you can sub the egg with a flax egg and sub the parmesan with vegan parmesan cheese.
- You can store these in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days! To reheat: warm them in a pan on the stovetop with your favorite tomato sauce or in the microwave.
- To freeze these meatballs raw or cooked: You will need to place them into a freezer-friendly airtight container and separate them with wax paper so they do not stick together. They should freeze for about 2-3 months.
- To cook them from frozen: Simply remove them from the freezer, let them thaw on the counter for 30 minutes then cook them per the recipe cooking instructions.
- To cook them from cooked-frozen state: Let them thaw on the counter for 20 minutes. Cook them on a baking sheet in the oven at 350 F degrees for 15 minutes. Add them to a pan with your favorite red sauce, cook for a few more minutes in the sauce, serve and ENJOY!
- To cook in the air fryer. Preheat the air fryer to 390 degrees F. Spray the basket with olive oil spray and place the rolled meatballs into the air fryer in a single layer (not overlapping). Close and cook the meatballs for 7-10 minutes until golden brown.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Healthy Dinner Ideas
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Mediterranean