Easy Vegan Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

You will love these savoury Italian meatballs! And the best part? This dish is super simple and quick to make, saving you tons of time (especially if cooking is not your forte). For this recipe, we used our very own Neokit™ - Plant-Based Ground Meat Kit and it turned out to be delicious and very texture-ful! 

Yields: 3-4 servings
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 40 mins

INGREDIENTS

Meatballs

• Neophyto Foods: Neokit™ - Plant-Based Ground Meat Kit
• ½ cup minced onions
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley 
• Salt to taste 
• Optional: ¾ tsp. crushed red chilli pepper flakes
• ¾ cups of olive oil for frying

Tomato Sauce

• 2 cups Pasta Tomato Sauce (adjust to your tastes)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 6 thinly sliced garlic (adjust to your tastes)
• 1/2 cup Basil (adjust to your tastes)
• ⅓ cup white wine

INSTRUCTIONS

For the Meatballs

1. Follow the instructions and prepare your vegan meatballs using our Neokit™. 
2. Add all meatball ingredients (except olive oil!) into a mixing bowl. Our Plant-based Ground Meat Kit is lightly-salted, but feel free to add more salt as per your taste buds!
3. Gently mix together the plant-based ground meat and other meatball ingredients and try breaking up the meat for a more even mix. 
4. With greased hands, shape the ground meat into 1 ½ inch sized balls and set aside.
5. In a large non-stick skillet, heat ¾ cups of olive oil over medium heat. (For an easier, less hands-on alternative, you can oven bake the meatballs instead for 15-20 mins over 400ºF.)
6. Add the meatballs into the skillet and cook evenly on all sides (~ 5 minutes per side) until golden brown for.

For the Tomato Sauce

For this recipe, we used store-bought tomato sauce, but if you have more time you may find it worthwhile to make a batch of homemade tomato sauce!

1. Slice 5-6 garlic cloves. 
2. Heat up your pan with medium heat. Add olive oil. Once the pan is hot, add garlic slices and ⅓ of prepared basil to the pan and sauté for 2 minutes. 
3. Turn to high-heat and add white wine to the pan; add tomato sauce to the pan. 
4. Turn to medium-to-low heat and simmer for 5 minutes. 
5. Add the ready-fried meatballs into the tomato sauce. Coat them with tomato sauce evenly and simmer over low heat for 5-8 minutes. Remember to gently toss meatballs across the pan occasionally. 
6. Add the remaining ⅔ basil to the pan. 
7. Plate and garnish with basil leaves. Enjoy!

We’d love to see how your meatballs turned out! So, don’t forget to share your creations by tagging us @NeophytoFoods!