As you all know, I’m in love with my Food Network Magazine. In a recent issue I found a recipe for Eggplant Meatballs. Now, I’m not sure why they call them meatballs since there is no meat in them, so we here just called them eggplant balls. I had just picked up my Utah Food Co-Op order. Lo and behold… there was an eggplant in there! Color me excited since that night it was going to be pasta with eggplant. And eggplant meatballs it was.
Hubby was skeptical, of course. He grew up in such a meat & potatoes house that sometimes something a little different is scary. His first question was whether there would also be ground beef in the meatballs. Uh, no. Not this time. That meant I also had to bake some chicken skewers so he can have his meat with his pasta but that was ok. I don’t mind doing something a little extra for him. For me, it was going to be vegetarian all the way. But…… once I had them in the oven, I realized I forgot to add the egg. UGH! What did that do to my meatballs? Well, read on after the recipe and you’ll find out.
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Pasta with Eggplant “Meat” Balls
Serves | 4 |
Prep time | 25 minutes |
Cook time | 1 hour |
Total time | 1 hours, 25 minutes |
Allergy | Egg |
Dietary | Vegetarian |
Meal type | Main Dish |
From magazine | Food Network Magazine |
Ingredients
- 1 Medium eggplant
- 1 Large egg (lightly beaten)
- 3/4 cups great northern beans (cooked or rinsed if from a can)
- 1 Large clove garlic (crushed)
- 1/2 cup parsley flakes
- 2/3 cups grated parmesan cheese
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- 8oz pasta (cooked)
Directions
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If you’ve made any type of meatball in the past, you know the egg is important to hold it all together. I’m thought “epic meatball fail” when I realized I left the egg out. But….. they were still so good. Leaving the egg out didn’t do anything to make them less flavorful. All it did was make them a little squishy (if that word even works here) and they weren’t as firm as they ought to be but nonetheless, they were delicious.
My fail wasn’t a fail when all was said and done. We still had a delicious dinner and making pasta with eggplant instead of pasta with beef lightened it up considerably. Hubby liked them too, but still prefers beef meatballs over eggplant.
To see more pasta recipes, follow my Pinterest Pasta board.
Follow Lori’s Culinary’s board Pasta Recipes on Pinterest.
I used to make a spinach meatball recipe for my vegetarian friends and now I can’t bring it to parties since they always make them now. THANK YOU for giving me a new vegetarian meatball recipe that I can make!
Jennifer Stewart recently posted…The Week I Had 18 Bosses And We Ran Out Of Soup
You are so welcome. Spinach meatballs sound so yummy! Have you posted the recipe?