5-ingredient vegetable köftes (meatballs)

I buy vegetables (especially root vegetables like onions, potatoes, and carrots) in bulk, so sometimes I don’t get through them quickly enough and they go off. Instead of throwing them away, though, I try to pot them, so they grow new vegetables, or I use them up in my dishes. I grew up enjoying Turkish Köftes, which are essentially meatballs mainly comprising onions, meats, veg (normally potatoes) and spices. 

I try to steer away from meat as much as possible. But, as the rest of my family are meat eaters, it’s difficult to avoid meat in the house. So if the boys want normal meat koftes, my mum makes them. I grew up in a family where the meat we used was clean meat and not processed meat. My parents educated us on the dangers of processed meat and, in fact, I’ve found a great infographic which explains why processed meat can cause chronic diseases like bowel and stomach cancer. Check out the infographic below from HARTMANN Direct.

So, I wanted to try a veggie version and utilise my carrots, potatoes and red onions, which were waaay past their best before date.

I also try to add leafy greens to every dish, but I didn’t have any fresh spinach to hand, so I went for the frozen version (fresh is always better!) Being a new vegan, I didn’t want to use eggs to bind the ingredients together in this recipe. I needed an alternative that would hold the meatball shape well enough to bake and I found that using a ‘flax egg‘ worked really well in this recipe. Here are the ingredients:

Just a few points to note, which I didn’t pay attention to when I first made these köftes. Squeeze out ALL of the veg juice before you make your köftes, otherwise, they’ll turn into mush when baked. Also, keep turning them in the oven or you’ll get charred bits on your köftes, which don’t taste nice. Frying them makes them crispy, but it’s not as healthy, so if you want crispy köftes, try covering them in wholewheat couscous or even breadcrumbs to achieve that crispy texture. But, most importantly, squeeze out all of the juice – ALL OF IT! 

Fancy more recipes with carrots? Try my unique Chocolate Carrot Branflake Crispy Cakes – they taste like chocolate Rice Krispie cakes! 

Onto the recipe! 

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5-ingredient vegetable köftes (meatballs)

Recipe by Five for a Fiver

Servings

14

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Total time

40

minutes

I grew up enjoying Turkish köftes, so I wanted to try a veggie version. Check out my 5-ingredient vegetable köftes (meatballs) here!

Ingredients

• 3 medium-sized potatoes, grated

• 2 medium-sized carrots, grated

• 2 medium-sized red onions

• Handful of spinach or 6 blocks

• Seasoning

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 flax egg (3 heaped tsp flax seed, 12 tsp water)

• 1tsp veg powder

• 1 tsp British coriander leaf

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp paprika

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius
• Grease and line your baking tray
• Grate all the veg with their skin (lots of elbow grease needed here!) into a large bowl
• Grate into a large bowl and a grater
• Squeeze all the juice out of the veg with a muslin cloth or through a sieve and then add the seasoning.
• Mix well with a spoon or your hands – ensure everything is combined well
• Form into oval shapes and place on a greased baking tray
• Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes or browned on all sides, turning halfway

Notes

• Squeeze all the juice out as much as possible. Any moisture and your koftes will go soggy!
• This recipe is perfect for veg that is going off. So, raid your pantry/fridge and get creative with the ingredients.

Watch out for aching arms after your grate all the veg – or you can be fancy and use a Food processor that has a grater – but, no pain, no gain, I say. Use some elbow grease to get the job done! 

Next time I will try the Bulgur Köfte recipe, but instead of using meat, I’ll try Quorn mince or root veg again. Watch this space!

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Please find below a list of ingredients I found from Tesco for £3.67 total (prices may vary from 17 March 2018)

Tesco Red Onions, 2 – 42p

Tesco Jacket Potatoes, approx 300g – 33p

Fresh & Naked Baby Spinach, 125g – 95p

Tesco Redmere Farms Carrot, 1kg – 47p

Tesco Flax Seeds, 150g – 150g

*Collaborative feature post*