Gordon Ramsay is the chef vegans love to hate. Actually, he’s more like the chef vegans love to laugh at. Why? Well, he’s an incredible chef who is great at what he does, but he’s also not a fan of vegans. Due to this….abhorrence of vegans, he publically makes some….interesting remarks mocking vegans or vegan dishes without even tasting them, but then…..BUT THEN, he goes on to add a vegan roast to his Bread St. Kitchen menu and tells the ever-outspoken vegan-hating Piers Morgan to “get with the times,” with some cussing, of course, when Mr. Morgan described the look of his new roast as utterly revolting.

ANYWAY, we are digressing. This post is to share a vegan version of Gordon Ramsay’s meatballs with you. We are just replacing the non-vegan ingredients in his meatballs with vegan substitutes (which we will suggest or provide recipes for). As we’re not actually using meat, the taste of the final product will be a bit different. However, it’s still really delicious, soft and full of texture. As you will notice when making these meatballs, the binder will be the breadcrumbs mixed with milk as opposed to a traditional egg binder or more common vegan flax/chia “egg” binder. This allows for a lighter meatball that still holds its shape.

‘Veganising Gordon Ramsay’ is be a series in which we will veganise a number of Gordon Ramsay’s recipes so those who enjoy(ed) watching him cook could try out his recipes without non-vegan ingredients or, if they haven’t completely eliminated animal (by-)products from their diet, in a way that that they feel more comfortable occasionally eating it.

So, without further ado, here’s our vegan version of Gordon’s Meatballs!

Bon appétit!

p.s He says they’re freezable and he defrosts them to cook with! His words, not ours. He’s promoting freezer-use for meals. There’s video evidence!

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Ingredients

Seitan Mince

250g Vital Wheat Gluten

25g Chickpea Flour

2tbsp Nutritional Yeast

1tbsp Sugar

¹/2tsp Nutmeg

1tbsp Paprika

1/2tbsp Chilli Powder

1tbsp Black Pepper

1tbsp All-Purpose Seasoning (preferably, Szczypta Smaku (Polish))

10g Vegetable Stock Cube (alternate: vegan seasoning cube)

2tbsp Soy Sauce

1tbsp Tomato Purée

250ml Water

1tsp Apple Cider Vinegar (alternate: lemon juice)

Meatballs

1 Brown Onion, finely chopped or minced

2 Large Garlic Cloves, finely chopped or minced

1tsp Chilli Flakes

500g Seitan Mince

Salt (to taste)

Black Pepper (to taste)

75g Breadcrumbs

20-24tbsp Oat Milk (alternate: soy, almond or cashew milk)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Method

Seitan Mince (preheat oven to 180°C)

• In a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (excluding the stock cube)
• In another bowl, combine all the wet ingredients and the stock cube until the stock cube dissolves. Alternatively, use a vegetable stock/broth in place of the stock cube and water.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until a dough-like mixture starts to form.
• Knead the dough for approximately 5mins shaping it into a loaf-like, cylindrical or cuboidal shape.
• Loosely wrap the dough in foil paper and place it in your preheated oven for 1hr.
• After the time has elapsed, break/cut the seitan into smaller pieces and let it cool for 10mins. (N.B. Leave the oven on)
• In a food processor, make the mince by using the pulse setting to repeatedly blitz the seitan pieces until it forms significantly smaller pieces resembling dry-cooked minced meat.

Meatballs

• Pour some oil into a frying pan and sweat the onions and garlic until fragrant.
• Add in the chilli flakes and fry it till the onions look nicely caramelised.
• Season your seitan mince in a bowl with salt and black pepper, mix and create a well in the centre of it.
• In a smaller bowl, combine the breadcrumbs and milk. Add a little milk at a time and stir until the breadcrumb mixture becomes mouldable. Slightly more or less milk might be required for this.
• Pour the breadcrumb mixture into the well at the centre of the seitan mince followed by your cooked onions, garlic and chilli flakes.
• Using your hands, preferably, mix all your ingredients until they are all evenly distributed and your mixture forms a mouldable consistency.
• Roll a few tablespoons of the mixture between your palms till you form a nicely rounded ball then place this ball on a baking tray lined with parchment or foil paper. Repeat this step with the rest of your mixture.
• Leave the meatballs to rest in the fridge for 25-30mins.
• In the same pan you used earlier, without cleaning it beforehand, heat up some more oil then place each of your meatballs in the pan and fry them till nicely browned and fragrant.

Serve.

Serving Suggestions: Pasta topped with tomato sauce and meatball, cheesy meatball bake, meatball sub-sandwich, meatball burgers, stir-fried pasta, with kale, pine nuts and meatballs or meatballs in a coconut milk-based fragrant sauce.

 

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If you try the recipe, upload a picture of it to Instagram with the hashtag #lickyourplaterecipe so we can have a look at and like it.

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