I love meatballs. Vegan “meatballs” that is.
I love that Beyond Meat can be used to make a deliciously convincing meatball so I can still enjoy one of my all time favorite pre vegan foods.
Before Beyond started selling the beyond meat in a 1 lb. block, I simply bought the burgers and thawed them, mixed them all up and used them as I would ground meat. It works really well and 4 burgers equal 1 lb. of vegan ground. You can use any brand of vegan mince you like. I prefer Beyond but I know there are a lot of new brands popping up these days, so use your fave or what you can find locally! What a glorious time to be a vegan!
So, that said, what do you do with your vegan meatballs? Add them to spaghetti? Sure, I guess, I do love spaghetti and meatballs. Put them on a sub roll and make a sandwich? Sure, It’s one of my favorite sandwiches. OR, you can bake up you very own homemade bread bowls and fill it with vegan meatballs.
Hear me out. These are way BETTER than a sub! For starters it’s less messy, and also you can pile up a LOT of meatballs into a bread bowl. Then you can smoother it, cover it, drowned it, in vegan cheese sauce and bake it up til it’s bubbly brown, and extra gooey. You will likely look a little more classy eating this than you would with marinara running down your chin as you chomp on a meatball sub. Just saying.
Bread bowl meatballs get my vote!
If you don’t want to make bread bowls, you can go buy some smaller round loaves of bread at the bakery and use those. I have done this with a giant round bread loaf and just made one giant bread bowl for sharing. “Sharing” sure…. if you even believe me, then yeah, I shared it.
Anyways, our all purpose vegan cheese sauce gets extra stretchy and gooey, and is perfect for topping these meatball bread bowls. Also, you are going to want to lick the pot you cook it in, so just a heads up, it’s actually that good. You can use the bread scraps to clean up the cheese pot. I am a genius like that, y’all!
So I you are a fan of meatballs, then try them in a bread bowl. Bread makes all meals better and carbs are for sure my love language. Can you even eat a meatball without bread? I would strongly argue that you for sure can not!
INGREDIENTS:
You will need one batch of our Easy Vegan Bread Bowls or 4-6 store bought bread bowls
4 thawed Beyond Beef burgers, or 1 lb block of Beyond Meat
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (a mix of thyme, sage, basil, marjoram, rosemary, and oregano) if you do not have Italian seasoning feel free to add a combo of any of the listed spices
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 flax egg
1/2 batch All Purpose Vegan Cheese Sauce
THE SAUCE: ( or use a favorite pre-made sauce)
1 onion, diced
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 small 14.4 oz can diced tomatoes
1/3 red wine (optional)
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
INSTRUCTIONS:
Meatballs:
Mix thawed burgers, panko bread crumbs, garlic, spices, and flax egg together in a bowl.
Once well combined, form meatballs with a small scoop, or spoon, and place them on a baking pan. You can line the pan with parchment paper for easier clean up.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Sauce: (you can also easily use store bought sauce)
In a medium sized sauce pan, sauté onions and garlic in 1 teaspoon of oil, and a teaspoon of salt, until onions are translucent.
Add the wine, and let it cook for 2 minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients, and let the sauce simmer for 30 minutes.
Add the cooked meatballs, and let simmer in the sauce for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Prepare cheese sauce according to directions, allowing it too cook until it is thick and stretchy.
Cut tops of bread bowls and hollow them out. You can save the extra bread to make croutons, or just save the scraps to dip in extra sauce. No judgments from me. It’s what I do. Fill the bread bowls equally with vegan meatballs and marinara sauce.
Evenly top the bread bowls with dollops of the cheese sauce, and sprinkle with some parsley if you like.
Place bread bowls on a baking sheet.
Place in the oven on the top rack just until the cheese starts to get extra melty and gooey.
Allow to cool a bit before serving. You don’t want to burn you mouth ( I am a mom of 4, I can’t help but give this warning)
If you like this recipe, then try these:
