I was inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow’s latest Goop newsletter and her recipe for lentil “meatballs”.
Of course, I couldn’t make it exactly as Gwyneth had suggested: for one thing, her recipe calls for cheese and I need to make my household’s lentil balls dairy-free. Her recipe also called for garlic and oregano, two herbs my son is very sensitive to, so those went out of my version, too. I kept in the beaten eggs, but if you need to make this egg-free, simply substitute with pureed cooked sweet potato. I also made my version gluten-free by using quinoa flakes instead of breadcrumbs.
Here’s my dairy-free, gluten-free version of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Lentil Meatballs.
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Dairy-free Gluten-Free Lentil “Meatballs”
Makes about 4 dozen small balls.
- 4 cups cooked lentils (2 cups of raw lentils simmered in water until soft)
- 7 oz. tomato paste
- 1 tsp. Celtic sea salt
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp. Aleppo red chile powder, or regular red chile powder
- 1 tsp. dried marjoram
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 beaten eggs
- 1 cup quinoa flakes
- olive oil
Preheat oven to 375F. Place lentils and spices into a food processor and pulse into a thick paste.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Mix in the lentil mixture and slowly add the quinoa flakes, not adding so much that the mixture is too dry. Add olive oil if needed to moisten the batter.
Form the lentil mixture into small balls and place cookie sheets coated thinly in olive oil. Drizzle lentil balls with olive oil. Place the sheets in the oven. Turn balls when the bottoms brown (about 10 minutes), and cook 5 minutes more. Be careful not to overcook as the balls will become dry.
Serve with marinara sauce. Freeze leftover lentil balls for later use.
*If I had had any in my house, I would have included frozen or fresh chopped spinach in the lentil mixture or in the marinara sauce. Unfortunately, we were out of spinach when I made this recipe and served it with lettuce and carrots instead.
