Secrets to Vegan Meatballs at the Meatball Shop

At any one of the Meatball Shop’s six New York outposts, patrons relish, say, orbs of spicy pork over a bed of sauteed broccoli, or pesto-dressed chicken atop freshly milled polenta. And while a vegetable version of the meatball has long graced the menu, now Meatball Shop owner and Chef Daniel Holzman has dreamed up a vegan recipe.

“Vegan food can be difficult to make for traditionally trained chefs, because we often rely on animal fats and proteins for moisture, flavor and to help bind ingredients together,” he explained. But Holzman, who launched his cooking career at New York’s acclaimed vegan restaurant Candle Café, isn’t perturbed by the challenge. “I love vegetables and don’t find cooking with only them to be constraining,” he added.

After myriad requests from customers for a vegan iteration of the meatball, Holzman decided it was time to experiment. By melding the likes of lentils, mushrooms and walnuts with carrots, tomato paste and breadcrumbs, he found success, yielding these fresh thyme- and parsley-flecked balls. “They aren’t made with any strange meat substitutes,” he pointed out. “The lentils and mushrooms are very ‘meaty,’ and the walnuts lend great texture and richness.” They’re just begging to be heightened by an indulgent jolt of pesto or tomato sauce sopped up by focaccia.

Related: 11 Delicious Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes 

Vegan Meatballs

Yield: About two dozen 1 ½-inch meatballs

2 cups lentils
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ large onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
2 teaspoons salt
5 tablespoons tomato paste
10 ounces button mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced
½ cup breadcrumbs
½ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup finely chopped walnuts

Combine the lentils and two quarts water in a medium stockpot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the lentils are soft (but not falling apart), about 25 minutes. Drain the lentils and allow to cool. Add ¼ cup olive oil to a large frying pan and saute the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, thyme and salt over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and just beginning to brown. Add the tomato paste and continue to cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, for 15 more minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and allow to cool to room temperature.

When cool, add the lentils to the vegetable mixture. Add breadcrumbs, parsley and walnuts to the cooled vegetable mixture and mix by hand until thoroughly incorporated. Place in the refrigerator for 25 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Drizzle the remaining two tablespoons olive oil into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and use your hand to evenly coat the entire surface. Set aside. Roll the mixture into round, golf ball-sized meatballs (about 1 ½ inches), making sure to pack the vegetable mixture firmly. Place the balls in the prepared baking dish, allowing ¼ inch of space between the balls and place in even rows vertically and horizontally to form a grid.

Roast for 30 minutes, or until the meatballs are firm and cooked through. Allow the meatballs to cool for five minutes on the baking dish before serving.

Per serving (3 balls): Calories 353; Fat 14 g (Saturated 2 g); Sodium 687 mg; Carbohydrate 46 g; Fiber 17 g; Sugars 6 g; Protein 16 g

Fat-Free Salad Isn't Joyless It's Genius

This Fat-Free Salad Isn't Joyless—It's Genius

A salad dressing without olive oil doesn’t sound genius—it doesn’t even sound good. Harsh, imbalanced, aggressive, joyless even? Well yes, it must be so.

But this radish and herb salad, from Engin Akin’s new cookbook Essential Turkish Cuisine, has no fat of any kind—and involves no sacrifice, no straining to compensate. Truthfully, it’s all the better for not having a lick of oil.

Engin Atkin’s Turkish Radish and Herb Salad

Initially, I couldn’t believe that this would be a selling point for Genius Recipes or for me. I’ve worked for almost six years for Food52, a company whose values direct us to embrace all the whole foods (and even some of the not-so-whole ones), and whose banned words list includes “indulgent” and “calories” and all references to diets and guilt.

Related: 7 Fall Salads

Chopping red radishes 

Food52’s very first published article, by one Merrill Stubbs, was an ode to Organic Valley butter. “I’m a slatherer. Always have been,” she wrote. We’re a good fit, because most of my cooking tricks are actually just frying in olive oil. I had cookies for dessert last night and for breakfast.

Related: You Should Be Adding Fresh Herbs to Your Salads

But even I—and every colleague I fed this salad—fell for a fat-free dressing. 

Chopped red radishes

Why leave the olive oil out? The reason is simple. “Like most salads from eastern Turkey,” Akin writes in the recipe’s headnote, “this salad is prepared without olive oil, as it is hard to get where olive trees are not part of the landscape.” In an email, she also pointed out the clues in the recipe’s name, Anatolian Gypsy Salad: "It must have been unpractical to carry olive oil or any kind of oil, as gypsies are nomads, and moving with oil canteens would have been not so easy.

Related: Deborah Madison’s Genius Technique for Better, Brighter Lentil Salads

Crushed ice

But why does it work so well? For one thing, there’s no vinegar or lemon juice, so the dressing doesn’t need as much padding as a typical high-acid vinaigrette. Instead, it has an unlikely but brilliant base: tomato paste, pomegranate molasses, and crushed ice. As the ice melts, it keeps the radishes bright and crunchy, but also thins the sweet, musky syrup to be looser, lighter.

Ingredients prior to mixing

All together, it’s as tangy and vibrant as any good salad dressing, but naturally a bit softer and more nuanced than a shot of vinegar. There’s also some crushed garlic, some sumac, and a whole mess of herbs—all at full volume, without a muzzle of fat. 

Not that there’s anything wrong with fat. But sometimes, the indulgence might be in not using it.

Engin Atkin’s Turkish Radish and Herb Salad

Adapted from Essential Turkish Cuisine (Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, October 2015)

2 cups (230 grams) sliced red radishes
½ cup (10 grams) chopped mint or tarragon
¾ cup (15 grams) chopped parsley
2 teaspoons sumac
1 large garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon tomato paste, diluted with 2 tablespoons cold water
3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
3 tablespoons crushed ice Salt

1. 1. In a bowl, toss together the radishes, mint or tarragon, parsley, sumac, and garlic. 
2. 2. Add the diluted tomato paste water, pomegranate molasses, and ice and toss. Season with salt to taste and serve immediately in a chilled bowl.