Happy Meat Free Monday!

Understanding your gut can be confusing, particularly when it comes to what to eat and which ingredients can support and improve digestive health.

To help, Love Your Gut Week has partnered with author and writer Dr Joan Ransley to share some simple recipes that both you and your gut will love.

Read more: Meat Free Mondays: Crispy Chickpea Salad with avocado and Greek Style cheese

Looking to cut down on red meat? These meat-free meatballs are the perfect substitute.

Infused with spices and herbs, this dish is packed full of flavour and high in resistant starch and dietary fibre – all of which contribute towards a healthy gut.

Here is everything you need to know:

Serves 4 – 6 (Makes 20 ‘meat’balls)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 x 400g tin chickpeas
• 1 x 400g tin red kidney beans
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp wholemeal four
• 1 medium egg
• pinch of black pepper
• zest from 1 lemon
• 3 tbsp chopped coriander both leaves and stalks
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley
• 50g fine breadcrumbs e.g. panko
• rapeseed oil for shallow frying

For the tomato sauce

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 2 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves

Method

1. Warm the olive oil in a small frying pan, add the chopped onion and cook for 5 minutes until soft but not coloured. Set aside and allow to cool.
2. Meanwhile, place the chopped garlic in a food processor with the drained chickpeas, kidney beans, cumin, wholemeal flour, and egg. Pulse the bean mix so there are still a few visible lumps of beans and chickpeas. Transfer to a bowl and season with pepper.
3. Add the fried onion, lemon zest, chopped coriander and parsley to the bean mix. Keep a little coriander back for garnish.
4. Place the fine breadcrumbs onto a plate. Take a tablespoon of the bean mix (about 30g), shape into a ball, roll in the breadcrumbs and place on a sheet of baking parchment paper. Continue rolling the balls until you have used up all the mixture. Place the balls in the fridge while you make the tomato sauce.
5. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6 and place a shallow oven proof dish in the oven to warm.

For the tomato sauce

1. Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan and add the chopped garlic and cook gently for 5 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes bay leaf, and dried oregano to the saucepan and heat until they just begin to simmer. Continue to simmer the tomato sauce while shallow frying the meatless ‘meat’ balls.
2. Remove the ‘meat’ balls from the fridge and shallow fry in oil for about eight minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are golden, draining the balls on kitchen paper after frying. You may have to do this in batches and place the balls in the dish warming in the oven.
3. Pour the tomato sauce over the ‘meatballs’ and serve with brown rice and a scattering of parsley and coriander.

Cooking tips: For a gluten free option, use gluten free bread to make the breadcrumbs by cutting it into small cubes and adding it to a food processor until fine. Spread the crumbs on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 200°C until golden. Once the breadcrumbs have cooled, add seasonings of choice.

For a vegan version, leave the egg out of the recipe and replace the flour with chickpea (gram) flour to help to bind the bean mixture together more firmly. This version of the recipe will be slightly crumblier than the original one, but the meatballs will hold together and taste great.

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