Plant-Based Sweet and savory Tomato sauce Meatball Recipe

One day, I was craving a meatball sub sandwich, but I don’t make a habit of keeping veggie meat on hand. I focus on eating mostly whole foods, and I make many of my favorite foods from scratch. In this case, I decided to so a quick and saucy meatball recipe from scratch in my instant pot pressure cooker. This recipe is sweet and savory, and perfect to eat on a sub sandwich, on mashed potatoes, or even with pasta noodles.

Ingredients:

Meatballs

2/3  can Blended black beans 

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten 

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup walnuts 

2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar 

1 tsp Tomato paste

Garlic 

Sage 

mustard powder

Onion

Chili powder

Sauce

Tomato sauce

4 tbsp brown sugar + 1/2 cup water + 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar + 2 tbsp tomato paste (or instead 1/2 cup ketchup)

Garlic and onion powder

Black pepper to taste

Salt to taste

Instructions:

In a blender, combine black beans walnuts and seasonings and blend until partially smooth.

Move this blended paste to a mixing bowl, and fold in vital wheat gluten and Panko bread crumbs.

If necessary, add more breadcrumbs until it is a sticky texture that can hold it’s shape. Let your meatballs rest for at least 10 minutes to let the gluten develop.

Ball up into medium balls.

In your pressure cooker, add all your ingredients for the sauce to the pot and mix until fully incorporated.

Add in meatballs.

Pressure cook for 20 minutes in the sweet and savory tomato sauce.