Spaghetti & Beanballs

Yes, more from Veganomicon. Isa and Terry have brainwashed me, I think. It's the most delicious brainwashing ever, though, so I don't really mind I must say. I have been wanting to try making the Spaghetti and Beanballs recipe for ages. I'm not sure why it took me so long to do it. The recipe makes a ton of these cute little things, so really I think I could get away with either only making half next time or freezing half since it's just me that I'm cooking for.

If you're not familiar with this recipe, it's basiscally like a meatball, but made with mashed up kidney beans instead of meat.

See... I had fun mashing up the beans. It's a good way to get out some agression, that's for sure. So you add a bunch of other stuff to the beans like bread crumbs and wheat gluten and herbs and such and you form them into these cute little balls.

There is an option to either fry them or bake them. I remember reading some threads on the PPK forums and some blog postings about these. Most people seemed to prefer the frying pan method of cooking, so I decided to go with that.

These suckers will absorb insane amounts of oil, so be careful how much you're putting in the pan and definitely use olive oil and not some other not as good for you oil. They also sorta start falling apart about halfway through cooking. I managed to keep a few of them whole, but I had to be really careful about it. To be honest, I actually prefered the smaller broken up pieces because then I had more crispy bits when I put it on top of my spaghetti.

This is definitely yummy and definitely something I'll make again. It was quick and easy, too. If you have kids, I'll betcha they'd had fun helping you mix the stuff together and forming the little balls. It's always fun to play with your food just a little bit. :)