Meatless lentil ricotta meatballs

These have a special place in my heart for so many reasons. First of all, it was one of the very first recipes I published on the earlier version of my blog, one that has disappeared, and I feel so nostalgic about it that I wish I had a screen capture of it. But come on, I wasn’t going to screen capture every single one of my recipes, was I? Was I?

Glad we got that settled.

Second of all, it comes from one of the first blogs I ever read, which is a deeply intense and unique food blog, you can go see for yourself. And lastly, it was one of the first “wow” recipes I made when I started blogging. Back then, I felt every single recipe I posted about had to have a “wow” ingredient — in this case, a meatball without meat, yoohoo. Here, it was a real discovery, even though it was a few years ago, and I was still very much onto meat, vegetarianism being far down the list of my most pressing concerns.

There was just something so genuine about these meatballs, in spite of their quintessential deceptiveness (yep, I just uttered that sentence in my head too) that I was moved by them. Actually moved. And I still am, to some extent.

Now, my better half really is the one who should get all the credit as far as ‘being moved by a meatless meatball’ goes, since I had to make two or three batches in the span of e few days when he discovered them, he was so attached. I swear I thought he loved me an ounce more with every bite that went into his mouth, and, sorry for all the cheesiness, but it was the most fulfilling feeling in the world. I mean, that is why people get into cooking to begin with.

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Meatless lentil meatballs

Prep time: 15 minutes
Chilling time: 2 hours
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Yields about 20 meatballs
Ingredients:
- 3 cups cooked or canned (and drained) lentils
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 3/4 cup ricotta
- 1/3 cup grated parmesan
- 1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 3 tbsp olive oil
Directions:
1. Puree the lentils in the bowl of your food processor, until smooth (you can leave some unpureed lentils, for a rougher final consistency.)
2. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the olive oil. Stir well with a spatula or your hands, until completely combined. Shape into plum-size balls and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
3. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the first batch of balls, cook them about 5 minutes on each side, until golden-brown. Add about 1/2 tbsp olive oil in between each batch. Serve warm, with tomato sauce for instance.
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My tips:
- If you use canned lentils, the more you drained them, the thicker and denser the balls will be.
- Make smaller (marble-size) balls to serve as appetizer.