Crunchy and vegetarian, these zucchini meatballs. Slowly baked and served in a delicious tomato sauce. Full of fresh vegetables and a skinny recipe.
Healthy eating, this month subject for most people for sure. And not just on this blog, it seems that all the news is afflicted with it. Yes to sugar, no sugar, a little sugar. Yes to milk, no milk (well you understand where I want to go).
And by all the differences in the news feeds it's really hard to see what is actually meant. My eating motto is don't over do it. Not too much milk, not too sweet, not too much. Don't exaggerate, just use common sense.
Use common
sense
And this includes not too much meat. We always had a meat habit by using only small portions of meat, so 300 grams grounded beef for homemade Macaroni (for five people) instead of 500 grams (and we don't even notice it). And we sometimes eat vegetarian meals. And in this household with four guys that's really a thing. But if I cook vegetarian in a way that it becomes irresistibly tasty, they give me the benefit of the doubt.
It isn't always an easy
task
So my task isn't easy. I'm always in the search for great vegetarian dishes. And when I was strolling on the internet I came across the site of skinnytaste.com and found a recipe for zucchini meatballs in tomato sauce. And her description sounded so good that I had to try it on my men. I have adapted the recipe (I'm not that fond of store bought tomato sauce) and put it on the table. The responses were, after a thorough inspection of the ball, positive. And so I share the adapted recipe with you here. As a healthy vegetarian alternative to meatballs.
Tip, tip,
tip
Oh yes, a small remark. Because it is winter, I make the recipes first in daylight, because I want to photograph them in day light and warm them again before eating (yes, it's not always easy to live with a food blogger in the house). When heating them up again the balls fell apart in the sauce (luckily I kept some apart). So if you want to prepare this dish in advance, keep the Zucchini balls apart until you almost going to serve them and just heat them for a short while in the sauce.
It's a good taste!
Recipe: Zucchini meatballs in
tomato sauce
adapted from: skinnytaste.com
📖 Recipe
RECIPE CARD
Equipment
- A conventional oven is used. When using a convection oven (with air fan) decrease the temperature with 30 °F / 20 °C
- Grater
- frying pan
- Colander
- Baking tray
Ingredients
Zucchini meatballs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic , mashed
- 2 zucchini , coarsely grated
- 0.5 teaspoon sea salt
- pinch ground black pepper, grounded
- 90 grams breadcrumbs
- 2 teaspoons Italian herbs
- 1 egg , size L, beaten
- 40 grams Parmesan cheese, finely grated
tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 shallot , finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic , finely chopped
- 30 grams tomato puree
- 400 ml passata
- 400 grams peeled tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon Italian herbs
- 1 bay leaf
All my recipes are written both in Metric (gram / ml) and US Customary (cups / pounds). Here you can select which type of amount you would like to see.
Instructions
Zucchini meatballs
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Put a frying pan on the stove and pour a tablespoon of olive oil in.
- Put the 2 crushed cloves of garlic and stir fry for 1 minute. Remove the garlic from the oil and then add the zucchini.
- Stir-fry the zucchini between 5 and 10 minutes, until all the liquid has evaporated.
- Let the zucchini drain in a colander and then put it into a bowl where you mix it with salt, pepper, bread crumbs, Italian herbs, Parmesan cheese and egg.
- Make small balls of the zucchini mixture and place them on a baking tray.
- Brush the top of the balls lightly with olive oil and put them in the oven.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and firm.
Tomato sauce
- Put the olive oil into the pan and fry the shallot in 3 minutes until translucent.
- Add the garlic and cook 30 minutes.
- Stir in the tomato puree and bake while stirring for another 2 minutes.
- Pour over the passata and peeled tomatoes and sprinkle with Italian seasoning.
- Mix well and place the bay leaf on top of the sauce.
- Simmer for 20 minutes, until the peeled tomatoes are pretty soft and you can press them flat with the back of your spoon (do so for all the tomatoes).
- Add the zucchini meatballs to the sauce and warm 2 minutes.
- Serve with Parmesan cheese and (optionafresh herbs such as parsley and basil.
Nutrition
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