Vegan meatballs can be prepared from a variety of ingredients. The secret is to find ingredients that naturally bind together or use a binding agent. In this recipe, I will share with you how to make delicious eggplant white beans vegan meatballs with tomato sauce. You can enjoy these meatballs with rice, roti, or garlic bread.

For The Vegan Meatballs

The Ingredients

• 1 eggplant finely diced
• ½-cup white beans – you can pre-boil white beans or use canned beans
• 1 white onion finely diced
• ½-cup bell peppers finely diced – you can mix the red, yellow, and green bell peppers if you love colors.
• ½-cup applesauce
• 1-cup oatmeal
• 1-tablespoon garlic paste
• A pinch of 3 of your favorite spices – I use ground cumin and basil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ½-cup seasoned bread crumbs

Procedure

Using a non-stick pan, heat about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and fry the onions. Add the garlic paste, diced eggplant, and the bell peppers. Add a little water and let them simmer until tender. You can choose to mash with a fork or puree using a food processor once done.

Now mix all the ingredients together except the breadcrumbs.

Scoop a tablespoon of the mixture and shape using your hands. If you feel the vegan meatballs are not sticking together, just add some more oats.

Roll the vegan meatballs in breadcrumbs and shallow fry until golden brown.

Remove them and dry the excess oil using paper towels. Set them aside as we now prepare the sauce.

That was easy, right?

Note

I add oats as the bidding agent instead of flour because I want the vegan meatballs to be healthy for kids too. However, if you don’t have oats, you can use gluten-free wheat flour.

Some people prefer adding breadcrumbs to the mixture. This also works fine. However, rolling the meatballs in breadcrumbs towards the end makes them crunchier.

Instead of shallow frying the meatballs, you can bake them in the oven at 375F for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Just remember to spray the baking tin with oil to prevent them from sticking.

For the Tomato Sauce

The Ingredients

• 5 ripe tomatoes – peeled and pureed
• 2-tablespoons of olive oil (or your favorite vegetable oil)
• 1-tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
• 1-teaspoon of chili flakes (optional)
• Spices of your choice – I find dried parsley and basil go well with this recipe (a teaspoon each)
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Procedure

In a large saucepan (enough to accommodate your meatballs), heat the oil.

Add the garlic-ginger paste and sauté until they release their aroma. Be careful not to burn them.

Add the tomato puree and all the spices. Season well with salt and cover the saucepan. Let it simmer under low heat for 30 minutes or until the tomato juice and oil start to separate. Now add the meatballs and cook them in the sauce for 10 minutes until they absorb the sauce flavors.

Serve your vegan meatballs on a bed of rice and sprinkle some chopped parsley leaves to garnish.

Enjoy!

Note

If your tomatoes are not ripe enough, the sauce tends to be acidic. To correct this, add some brown sugar or balsamic vinegar.

Similarly, if the tomato sauce is more than you would prefer, (depending on the portion of your meatballs) scope some into an airtight container and refrigerate. You can use this sauce in other meals, especially pasta.

Baking a vegan gluten-free pumpkin pie can be challenging especially if you don’t know which ingredients to use and their ratios. The key challenge with vegan pies is usually the crust. That is where all the calories and gluten rest. If you are in a rush, you can use the store bought vegan piecrusts. However, in this recipe, I will share with you the healthy version.

This recipe serves eight, but you can double the ingredients for a larger serving. And we are using a 9″ round pie tin.

To Make the Piecrust

Most piecrusts use any form of fat and flour plus a little liquid to tie it all together. Non-vegans use lard, butter, and milk. In this vegan gluten-free pumpkin pie recipe, we will use vegetable shortening, gluten-free flour, and almond milk. You can, however, substitute the milk with any non-dairy milk, and use other healthier flour options like a combination of cassava flour with oats flour.

The Ingredients

1½-cup gluten-free all-purpose flour

½ cup vegetable shortening

¼ cup almond milk

A pinch of sugar and salt to taste

The Procedure

Just like with any other piecrust, chill the vegetable shortening, bowl, spoons, rolling pin, and any other tool you will be using in the fridge a few hours before prep.

Sift in all the dry ingredients in the cold bowl.

Add the shortening and using a fork, break it down in the flour to form a crumbly texture.

Add the milk and use your hands to knead until well combined. Because our flour lacks the binding gluten, the dough will not hold or stretch for long. So you have to work with it carefully but quickly.

Let the dough rest for 15 minutes in the fridge.

Then roll it out into a circle. If you like a crisp piecrust, then roll it thin and precook before adding the pumpkin filling. If you prefer the thick, chewy piecrust, roll out thick. I prefer medium sized piecrusts because even without pre-cooking they cook fully without burning in a short time.

Transfer to the baking tin. Cut the excess pastry and firm the edges using a fork or your fingers.

Put it back in the fridge as you prepare the pumpkin filling.

To Make the Pumpkin Filling

The Ingredients

2-cups pumpkin

½-cup coconut milk

¼-cup maple syrup

1-tablespoon pumpkin pie spice – You can use the store-bought ones or make yours from scratch

A pinch of salt

The Procedure

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F)

In a blender, puree all the ingredients until they form a thick but smooth consistency

Pour this mixture into the piecrust and bake for an hour or until the vegan gluten-free pumpkin pie is well done.

The pie will be a bit delicate once you remove from the oven. Let it cool and then chill overnight to set firmly.

To Serve

Whip up some coconut cream until it forms soft peaks. If it’s too thick, add a little coconut milk to get your desired consistency.

Pipe this cream over the vegan gluten-free pumpkin pie, Portion into eight slices and enjoy.

Vegan pumpkin spice cookies are a quick breakfast and dessert addition. They make good use of leftover pumpkins too. In this recipe, I will share with you a simple yet delicious and healthy vegan pumpkin spice cookies recipes that even your kids can make this season. I will also show you how to make healthy cookie frosting the vegan way. Let’s get started!

The Ingredients

For the Cookies

½-cup all-purpose flour – Purchase the gluten-free version

1-tablespoon corn flour

½-cup pumpkin puree

Maple syrup – ¼-cup (optional if you don’t like them too sweet)

½-cup coconut sugar

A pinch of salt

½-cup cocoa butter (you can use coconut oil or any vegetable oil you prefer)

Pumpkin spice mix (1 teaspoon of each):

• Ginger
• Cinnamon
• Allspice
• Nutmeg

For the vegan cookie frosting

½-cup organic shortening

¼-cup coconut sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. almond extract

A pinch of salt

Note

To prepare the pumpkin puree, steam your pumpkin with its skin on until tender. Puree in a blender for silky smooth vegan pumpkin spice cookies or mush with a fork if you prefer tasting the pumpkin chunks in your cookies.

You can use the brown coconut sugar. It’s less refined and, therefore, concentrated with more minerals which makes it healthier.

The Procedure

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 C)

In a wide bowl, sift in the dry ingredients.

Make a well at the center and pour in the wet ingredients.

Mix with a wooden spoon until incorporated but avoid over-mixing. It is ok to have a few lumps.

Leave the mix in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. This allows your mixture to bind properly with the oil. Otherwise, if you bake directly, the two will separate, and you’ll end up with oily cookies.

Also note that with this recipe, the mixture might look a bit wet. Don’t worry. It will thicken once you let it sit in the fridge.

Using an ice cream scoop, portion the mixture onto a lined cookie-baking tray. You can also use a spoon to measure walnut-size batter portions and then shape into neat rounds using your hands. The spoon is rather messy that’s why I prefer using an ice cream scoop.

Bake the cookies for 15 minutes until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, to make the frosting, combine all the ingredients with a wooden spoon until the mixture is light and creamy. Feel free to use food coloring if you prefer colored frosting. Pipe the frosting on your cooled cookies and sprinkle some coconut spice mix.

You can as well add sprinkles or granulated sugar.

In Conclusion

Because of the pumpkin, these cookies will have a softer texture. If you love crunchier vegan pumpkin spice cookies, leave them in the oven for a little longer. For fluffier and spongy cookies, add a tablespoon of cream. I must mention that with pumpkin, don’t try rolling out the cookies as we do with simple cookie dough. The result will be a hard and unpleasant cookie. Scoping a softer batter works best.

Enjoy your vegan pumpkin spice cookies!