Red lentil balls with nuts and pesto

Gluten free
Vegan
Low carb
Mediterranean
Do you eat vegetarian or vegan? Buying ready-made meat substitutes doesn't always feel right. Make your own meat substitutes! These protein-rich red lentil balls with pesto are a great substitute for meat and fit in a salad, with your vegan 'avg' or in pasta. Also delicious as a protein-rich snack, together with a tasty sauce or, for example, hummus.
Side dishMeat substitute12 balls50 minutes preparation
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This is what you need

Red lentils200 g
Olive oil1 tbsp
Red onion1 small
Garlic2 cloves
Fresh parsley10 g
Walnuts50 gPeanuts50 gPesto di pomodori1 heaped tbsp
Psyllium fibres1 tbsp
Pepper and salt

Kitchenware

Food processor
Oven

Chef

Ingrid Duifhuizen
Ingrid is the brand manager at TerraSana. She loves food - cooking, eating, sharing meals, writing, and talking about it. Recipe development and food photography are her passions on the side.

This is how you make it

  1. Cook the red lentils in plenty of water over low heat for 20 minutes. Drain in a sieve, until the very last drop of moisture is removed.
  2. Preheat the oven to 170 ° C.
  3. Chop the onion, garlic and flat-leaf parsley.
  4. Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat and stir fry the onion and garlic for about 3 minutes until translucent and slightly golden brown.
  5. Put the peanuts and walnuts briefly in a food processor (a few seconds is probably enough), until the nuts are roughly chopped.
  6. Put the cooked red lentils in a bowl, together with the onion-garlic mixture, pesto or harissa and parsley. Mix with a fork until firm. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  7. Sprinkle the psyllium over the mixture and stir it through quickly and evenly.
  8. If the dough is too firm (psyllium absorbs a lot of moisture), add 1 or 2 tablespoons of warm water.
  9. Spread baking paper on a baking tray. Using your hands, turn balls of the mixture the size of a small ping pong ball. Divide over the baking tray and put in the oven.
  10. Bake in about 20 minutes until golden brown. Turn them over after 15 minutes.