Ingredients
For the ‘meat’ balls:
1 tin cooked lentils, rinsed and drained
1 cup oats or breadcrumbs
2 Tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2 eggs
2 Tbs tomato paste
Herbs de Provence/Italian herbs
Salt & Pepper to taste
Oil for frying — or you can bake in the oven
For the sauce:
1 onion
1 whole fresh/roasted capsicum
1 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs tomato paste
1 tin tomatoes
1 cup water
Herbs de Provence/Italian herbs
Pasta of choice
Method
For the ‘meat’ balls:
You’re going to need a food masher/smasher/blender of some description for these ones. Whether it is a food processor, a blender, or your arm, the lentils need mashing. I have a food processor so I use that…
If you are using oats rather than breadcrumbs, add only the oats to the food processor and grind up into a fine(r) powder. Then add everything else and blend into oblivion. Take heaped teaspoon size scoops of mixture and roll into balls.
I have baked and fried these, both were equally effective methods for cooking the balls and making them golden and crispy on the outside, you use which ever method you can be bothered with!
For frying: add about 1cm of oil to a frying pan, heat the oil and then fry the balls in batches until crispy and dark brown.
For the oven: Go back in time and pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees. Add all the balls to a baking tray, bake for 15 mins and then give them all a swirl around and bake for a further 15–20mins — until dark brown and crispy.
For the sauce:
Chop and dice onion, add to frying pan/pot with olive oil and herbs and brown up. Add all the other goodies, stir lovingly while leaning over your stove, enjoying the aromas. Bring to a bubble then let simmer for 5 mins.
At some point through all of this bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta and cook that.
Add your cooked meatballs to the sauce and gentle stir to coat them all generously. Add sauce and meatballs to bowls of pasta and call all your loved ones away from their various screens to enjoy your efforts!