A Monday Recipe: Birthday "Meat"balls!

For my birthday celebration dinner, I made these delicious meatballs for the main dish. EVERYONE loved them! They were so delicious, as were the leftovers for the next two days. This recipe makes a lot, but they're leftovers you don't mind having.

I would have loved a meatball sandwich, but they didn't last long enough for me to get some rolls.

From the September 2011 Vegetarian Times, my changes are in parentheses.



Veg Greek Meatballs in a Fragrant Tomato Sauce with Feta Cheese
3 8-oz pkgs of plain seitan and drained. ( I used homemade seitan)
1 8oz pkg low fat ricotta cheese
1c unseasoned breadcrumbs
1c finely chopped onion
1 large egg, beaten
3T lemon juice
2T finely chopped fresh dill
2T finely chopped fresh mint
2t ground cumin
1t baking soda
1/2t allspice
1/4t ground cinnamon
2T olive oil
1 25oz jar tomato sauce (I assumed this meant pasta sauce)
1c crumbled feta cheese

1. pulse the seitan in food processor until finely ground. Transfer to bowl, and add all ingredients except oil, tomato sauce and feta. Mash with hands or potato masher until mixture comes together. add salt and pepper. Chill 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350*. Coat baking dish with oil. Scoop seitan mixture into golf ball sized meatballs and place in prepared baking dish. (I did this, but got only 24 meatballs...so they *might* mean much small size than golf ball). Bake 20 minutes.

3. Pour tomato sauce over meatballs, and sprinkle with feta. Bake 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbly. .

Nutrition facts: per serving of 4 meatballs (2 of mine!), 168 cal, 21 grams protein, 4 gram total fat, 14 grams carbs, 16 mg cholesterol, 684 mg sodium, 2 grams fiber, 4 grams sugars.

Enjoy! We'll be having these again. Delicious!