The broccoli meatballs they are a light and easy to prepare second course and with our recipe you won’t even throw away the stems! They are an excellent vegetarian alternative to grandma’s classic meatballs capable of tempting vegetable lovers but also children, who can approach this vegetable in a more playful way.
The recipe is very simple and can be prepared in a very short time. A great alternative when you don’t know what to cook for dinner.
The broccoli meatballs recipe
Ingredients
1 large broccoli, 300 g
1 egg
2 tablespoons grated parmesan
breadcrumbs to taste
Salt and Pepper To Taste
Extra virgin olive oil to taste
Method
Separate the florets of the broccoli and remove only the hardest part of the stem. Blanch everything for 10 minutes in boiling salted water, or steam cook. The broccoli must become soft. Mash them roughly with a fork and then mix them with theeggThe parmesansalt and pepper and add little by little bread crumbs to give consistency to the dough. You can leave it in the refrigerator for an hour and then work with it.
Divide it into several parts forming meatballs of the size you prefer. Then roll them in breadcrumbs and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Season with extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt cook in the oven at 200° for 20 minutes. You can also fry them in hot extra virgin olive oil, but not immersed. Just use a pan with high sides, add two fingers of oil and let it heat before frying the meatballs.
Three variations to try
Add the potatoes
To give a different softness to the mixture you can also mash some together with the broccoli boiled potatoesone is enough, and in this way you can also avoid adding the egg and parmesan and transform this recipe into a vegan. To give it some flavour, play with the aromatic herbs and use nutritional yeast which has a bit of a cheese flavour.
Prepare a meatloaf
If you want, you can also prepare a vegetarian meatloaf. Add more breadcrumbs to make it more compact, or potatoes as we said before. Cook it in a baking dish wrapped in baking paper at 200° for 20 minutes, then open the foil and continue cooking for another 15 minutes at the same temperature.
Serve them with the sauce
Want something richer? You can serve them with a little tomato sauce and basil prepared first.
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