As in many countries, meat-free diets are becoming more popular in Scandinavia. However, these don’t always go hand in hand with traditional dishes such as meatballs. These ‘veggie balls’ are my answer to that. They have similar flavour notes to meatballs, and are just as satisfying when served with mash, lingonberries and veggie gravy.
Change the vegetables in this if you like – just as for traditional meatballs, the recipe should become your own. Try swapping carrots for beetroot/beet, celeriac for parsnip, and so on. The nuts can also be changed depending on preference. If you don’t have Västerbottensost, use a similar aged cheese such as pecorino or even Parmesan.
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 2 oz (50 g) celeriac
- ¾ cup (100 g) hazelnuts or whole almonds
- 1 cup (150 g) cooked lentils from a jar or can, drained and rinsed
- 2 oz (50 g) Västerbottensost (or other mature hard cheese), grated
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2–3 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley
- ⅝ cup (50 g) dried breadcrumbs
- 2 tablespoons plain/all-purpose flour
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- a glug of oil and a knob of butter, for frying
How to Make It
- Place the onion, carrot, celeriac and nuts in a food processor and pulse until chopped. Add the rest of the ingredients (apart from the oil and butter) and pulse again until you have a mixture that can be easily shaped into round balls (a bit larger than a walnut). You should be able to make about 30 veggie balls from the mixture.
- Melt the butter and oil in a frying pan/skillet, add a batch of the shaped veggie balls and fry gently until crispy all over. Cook them in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan – if the pan is too full, the balls will steam rather than fry. I usually finish mine in the oven for around 15 minutes on a low heat, which you can do while you’re frying the remaining batches.
- Note that the water content of the vegetables you use can alter the consistency of the veggie balls – if the balls do not retain their shape during frying, add a little more flour to the mixture.