Fluffy lentil balls with tofu
Equipment
- small pot with lid
- large pan with lid
- bowl
Ingredients
Preparation
- 90 gram mountain lentils, uncooked
- 250 ml vegetable broth
- 2 shallots or small onions, diced
- 1 dash frying oil, e.g. alba oil
Remaining ingredients
- 200 gram tofu, crumbled/mushed
- 2-3 tbsp sweet corn, drained
- 3-4 tbsp chickpea flour
- 2 tbsp wheat flour
- 1 tbsp starch (e.g. tapioca)
- 0.25 tsp baking powder
- 0.5 tsp turmeric powder
To taste
- salt e.g. vegan steak/BBQ salt
- mixed pepper corns, ground
- more flour or ground flaxseed for consistency
Frying
- 1 dash frying oil, e.g. rapeseed oil
Instructions
Preparation
- Wash the lentils thoroughly, add them to the vegetable broth and bring to boil. Close the lid and cook for 25-30 minutes on low heat. Meanwhile, dice the shallots and sauté lightly until soft. Lightly press the tofu to get rid of excess water and crumble it. Alternatively, use a hand blender to roughly mush it. Drain the sweet corn.
- Let the lentils cool down before continuing with the recipe.
Creating the balls
- Add the lentils, tofu and sweet corn to a bowl. Then, add all the dry ingredients and gently mix together with a spoon or fork. It's not supposed to be a firm kneadable dough, but if the mixture isn't sticky and dough-like already, add some more flour and/or ground flaxseed.
- Heat a large pan on medium heat with a dash of frying oil. Make sure the oil is spread across the whole pan base.
- Spread a drop of the oil onto your clean and dry palms. Take a chunk of the mixture, roughly the amount needed for a large falafel ball, and shape it into a ball (obvious, I know). Make sure the sweet corn is well integrated – it loves to escape when it's just sitting on the surface. Carefully place the ball into the pan and quickly repeat this step until you used up the mixture (approximately 14 balls). Proceed to turn the balls around which are already firm (crispy but not crunchy) on the bottom. Keep turning them until every side is firm and golden. Now, lower your expectations – they won't be perfectly round. ;-)
- Close the lid for approximately 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid and test the balls with a skewer or fork. If the inside is still creamy or sticky, close the lid for another minute and test again. Alternatively, take one ball out of the pan, cut it in half and test whether it still tastes like raw chickpea flour (which is quite unpleasant) or not. When the inside is well done, keep them in the pan until the steamed water from closing the lid is evaporated.
- Switch off the hotplate and let the balls cool down a bit. Enjoy them while they're still warm and fresh!
Serving suggestion
- As a side (four portions), serve them with potatoes or rice. As a main component (two portions), serve them with a green mixed salad.
I made a potato bake recently and wanted to add some more protein – this is what I came up with. I figured things out as I went and tried to estimate the amounts for each ingredients as accurately as possible… which is harder than you might think. 😀
When coming up with a name for this recipe, I tried to calculate the total amount of protein in it to figure out whether I’d get away with saying that these are protein balls. Turned out, it’s at least 41 grams of protein. The recommended¹ daily protein intake is 0.8 grams per kilogram of your body weight. I could almost cover my need if I ate this whole batch. But I didn’t. And I probably won’t. So do with this information whatever you want.
The upcoming photo down below rather looks like bland canteen food, but yeah I’m not a professional food blogger by any means. So no food porn for you, I’m soooo sorry. 🙁
In case you are interested in what’s on this plate regardless: It’s a potato bake made from cashews, oat milk, starch, nutmeg, garlic, salt and pepper. It took super long in the oven because I used raw potato slices. For some greens, I had a cucumber salad. It’s just made from cucumber, dill and some salt and it’s delicious. I never thought I’d say that since I avoided cucumbers for more than a decade after curiously trying cucumbers at friends’ of my father and having to throw up on my lap few seconds later. I was so embarassed and had to change into olive corduroy pants from the son of those friends. I like to think I was traumatized ever after, but very obviously, I worked through it as my taste buds matured around 6 years ago.
The recipe
Fluffy lentil balls with tofu
Equipment
- small pot with lid
- large pan with lid
- bowl
Ingredients
Preparation
- 90 gram mountain lentils, uncooked
- 250 ml vegetable broth
- 2 shallots or small onions, diced
- 1 dash frying oil, e.g. alba oil
Remaining ingredients
- 200 gram tofu, crumbled/mushed
- 2-3 tbsp sweet corn, drained
- 3-4 tbsp chickpea flour
- 2 tbsp wheat flour
- 1 tbsp starch (e.g. tapioca)
- 0.25 tsp baking powder
- 0.5 tsp turmeric powder
To taste
- salt e.g. vegan steak/BBQ salt
- mixed pepper corns, ground
- more flour or ground flaxseed for consistency
Frying
- 1 dash frying oil, e.g. rapeseed oil
Instructions
Preparation
- Wash the lentils thoroughly, add them to the vegetable broth and bring to boil. Close the lid and cook for 25-30 minutes on low heat. Meanwhile, dice the shallots and sauté lightly until soft. Lightly press the tofu to get rid of excess water and crumble it. Alternatively, use a hand blender to roughly mush it. Drain the sweet corn.
- Let the lentils cool down before continuing with the recipe.
Creating the balls
- Add the lentils, tofu and sweet corn to a bowl. Then, add all the dry ingredients and gently mix together with a spoon or fork. It's not supposed to be a firm kneadable dough, but if the mixture isn't sticky and dough-like already, add some more flour and/or ground flaxseed.
- Heat a large pan on medium heat with a dash of frying oil. Make sure the oil is spread across the whole pan base.
- Spread a drop of the oil onto your clean and dry palms. Take a chunk of the mixture, roughly the amount needed for a large falafel ball, and shape it into a ball (obvious, I know). Make sure the sweet corn is well integrated – it loves to escape when it's just sitting on the surface. Carefully place the ball into the pan and quickly repeat this step until you used up the mixture (approximately 14 balls). Proceed to turn the balls around which are already firm (crispy but not crunchy) on the bottom. Keep turning them until every side is firm and golden. Now, lower your expectations – they won't be perfectly round. 😉
- Close the lid for approximately 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid and test the balls with a skewer or fork. If the inside is still creamy or sticky, close the lid for another minute and test again. Alternatively, take one ball out of the pan, cut it in half and test whether it still tastes like raw chickpea flour (which is quite unpleasant) or not. When the inside is well done, keep them in the pan until the steamed water from closing the lid is evaporated.
- Switch off the hotplate and let the balls cool down a bit. Enjoy them while they're still warm and fresh!
Serving suggestion
- As a side (four portions), serve them with potatoes or rice. As a main component (two portions), serve them with a green mixed salad.
Please tell me what you think if you tried it! I’m happy to receive suggestions for changes in the recipe and gladly try to give advice if a problem ocurrs. Also, feel free to request other recipes from me. 🙂
Resources
¹ https://www.dge.de/wissenschaft/referenzwerte/protein/