Hearty, savory, garlicky meatballs just like you grew up eating...but totally meatless! These lentil meatballs are packed with flavor, easy to whip up, totally vegetarian, vegan, and optionally gluten-free!
A couple weeks ago my husband's employer held a meatball cook-off. Apparently it was just between two people, both who swore their mom's meatballs were the best on the planet. My husband suggested he could jump in and prove that his wife's vegan meatballs were actually the best on the planet.
While I love the bid of confidence, I'm just not sure I'm ready for that kind of thing. I did consider sending him in with some type of veggie meatballs for anyone who was interested in trying them, or just to make sure any vegans or vegetarians he worked with didn't get left out of the fun.
But I realized I didn't even have super simple meaty Italian meatball, which is what I'm sure the people who entered the meatball battle were going for.
I do have Italian meatballs that taste like eggplant and broccoli rabe. And I also have meaty non-Italian meatballs. In fact, I get comments from you guys all the time telling me you've adapted my salisbury steak meatballs or tofu balls for purposes of drenching in tomato sauce and serving with pasta.
So I decided it was time for some meaty Italian vegan meatballs, and I made them out of lentils!
What's great about this recipe is that it's made almost entirely from pantry staples. Onions and garlic are the only exceptions, but I'm betting most of you guys have them hanging around the kitchen.
I cooked up some dried lentils for my lentil meatballs, but you can use canned if you prefer.
To start, you'll be blending up some oats in the food processor. The oats bind the balls together. I usually go with panko breadcrumbs for this purpose, but the nice thing about oats is that they allow you to keep the balls gluten-free if you like.
After blending the oats, add your lentils, along with some sautéed garlic and onions, tomato paste, and seasonings. Just pulse once or twice — the mixture will quickly turn to total mush if you overdo it.
It should be very soft, but still firm enough to roll into balls. Roll them up!
These lentil balls bake up in the oven for about 25 minutes. Just enough time to cook up some pasta and maybe even whip up a batch of sauce.
Tips for Making Awesome Lentil Meatballs
- If you keep oat flour on hand, feel free to sub 1 scant cup of it for the rolled oats. No need to blend it in advance if you do — just throw it in with everything else!
- Use certified gluten-free oats (or oat flour) and tamari if you'd like to keep these beanballs gluten-free.
- Wet your hands before rolling to prevent the lentil mixture from sticking to them.
- You can prep the lentil mixture a day or two in advance and store it in the refrigerator, or up to two months in advance and freeze it. On the day of serving, just thaw if it's frozen, roll, and bake according to the recipe.
- Be careful not to overcook your lentils or overblend your lentil meatball mixture in the food processor. Doing either could make the mixture too soft to roll! If that does happen, try stirring in a tablespoon or so of flour, or chilling it for a bit to firm it up.
More Vegan Meatball Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Italian-Style Lentil Meatballs
Ingredients
- ¾ cup dried brown lentils (or sub 2 cups precooked or canned)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, divided and minced
- 1 cup rolled oats (optionally gluten-free)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
- 1 ½ teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
Instructions
- If using dried lentils, place them into a small saucepan and cover them with water. (If your lentils are canned or precooked, skip to step 5.)
- Place the pan over high heat and bring the water to a boil.
- Allow the lentils to boil, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, until the they're tender but not mushy.
- Remove the pot from the heat and drain the water. Give the lentils a quick rinse in cold water.
- Lightly coat the bottom of a medium skillet with oil and place it over medium heat.
- When the oil is hot, add the onion and sauté for about 5 minutes, until soft and translucent.
- Add 2 cloves of garlic and sauté for about 1 minute more, until very fragrant. Remove the skillet from the heat.
- Preheat the oven to 400° and lightly oil a baking sheet or oven-safe skillet.
- Place the oats into the bowl of a food processor fitted with an s-blade and blend to a powder.
- Add the cooked lentils, cooked onion and garlic, the remaining raw garlic, tomato paste, soy sauce, red wine vinegar, oregano, thyme, basil, red pepper flakes, liquid smoke, salt and pepper to the food processor bowl.
- Pulse just a couple of times — much more and the mixture will quickly turn to mush.
- Taste test the mixture and adjust any seasonings to your liking.
- Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls (about 24 of them), and arrange them on the baking sheet or in the skillet.
- Lightly brush or spray the balls with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
- Bake for about 24 minutes, until firm and lightly browned, flipping the balls about halfway through.
- Serve with your favorite sauce and optionally some pasta.
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My oldest daughter doesn't eat red meat and she loves lentils. I wanted to try making these for her (of course she can share with my son-in-law and grandchildren if they will eat them lol. They are all meat eaters. Anyway, my question is, I don't have rolled oats, but I have quick cooking oats. Can I use these instead? I have everything else the recipe calls for. I will leave out the liquid smoke because I am not a fan of it. Thank you.
I think quick cooking oats will work! If anything, the texture might be slightly different, but I think they'll still be delicious. Enjoy!
Excited to try these, comments look like they will taste amaze! Idiot I have to use brown lentils (if obviously not using canned or precooked) or can I use green? Will the texture be the same in your opinion?
I think green should work just fine! I often use them interchangeably with brown lentils. They might just need a little extra simmer time.
yum!! I halved the recipe using one full can of black lentils. I mistakenly didn't read all the instructions and blended up the mixture too much it got kinda mushy but they still turned out great (: in the air fryer 400 degrees for 10 min, moving them around halfway through. will make again next time read all the instructions lol
forgot to mention I added a few mushrooms and nutritional yeast!
The sodium content in the nutritional analysis seems very high. Is that for the whole recipe or for one serving?
That's for one serving. You could bring the amount down a bit by using reduced sodium soy sauce and tomato paste.
I was looking for a gluten-free vegetarian meatball recipe and remembered loving this one. The catch was I didn’t have any lentils on hand...and then I remembered the German meatball and cabbage with mustard sauce recipe (deelish!), which uses tofu. I used that as the base recipe, then added the seasonings from this one. My new “Italian tofu meatballs” turned out great! Thanks for two excellent recipes that resulted in this new hybrid!
We have made these several times, they are delicious and most people wouldn't know they aren't meat.
I do like to saute all onion,garlic and mushrooms with olive oil and seasonings. I think you get better flavor, but i do add a little raw onion in final mixing.
Today we tripled the recipe and will be freezing.
Sometime we have with red sauce and sometimes I make a rich savory herbed vegan gravy.
Great recipe, thank you.
Very welcome! I'm so glad you're enjoying it!
I am new to this vegetarian/vegan eating and I made these....all I can say is wow! So delicious! I cooked the onions in a little bit of vegetable broth to reduce the oil. I used cooking spay on the pan and the veg balls! I used panko breadcrumbs instead of the oats. I will definitely make this again!
Yay! I'm so glad you liked them!
I made this for lunch with quinoa and pasta and I'm so happy!!!! My entire family loved it.
I did sub some ingredients but for the most part went with the recipe. Usually I have to do 2nd and 3rd tries at vegan recipes but I aced this one at 1st attempt.
Thank you so much all the way from the Caribbean
Yay! Sounds like a delicious meal! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
These were awesome! I used Braggs Liquid Aminos in place of the Tamari and added sundried tomatoes to add to the smoky flavor.
Sundried tomatoes sound like a wonderful addition! I'm so glad you liked them!
Has anyone tried to freeze these? Do they freeze well? how did you freeze them?
They should freeze just fine! You could either freeze them after baking in a sealed container, or if you can plan ahead, freeze the lentil mixture before rolling and baking - then when you're ready you can thaw, bake and eat them. Either way they should be good for at least 3 months in the freezer. Enjoy!
I made these today. I found them a little bland. And the oat flour a little cloying. They DID cook beautifully, we served them in homemade rolls with homemade tomato sauce, i will definately make them again with more seasonings. My 20 year old lovef them though as is.
I just made these but it was just too mushy to turn into balls, so I made a loaf instead. It looks pretty good.
I didn't overdo the food processor part, so wondering what happened. If you have any advice, I'd try it again.
Thanks.
It could be that the lentils were a little overcooked for this recipe (keep them a bit on the firm side), or needed more draining after cooking. If the batter comes out mushy any time you're making bean-based meatballs or burgers, try just adding some extra oats or breadcrumbs - that should firm the mixture up enough for you to be able to shape it!
I can't wait to try these! I will probably use black lentils, they are my fav. Do you think these would freeze well once cooked?
They should freeze just fine! I hope you enjoy them!
Made these tonight but subbed red wine vinegar for balsamic vinegar. They were soo amazing!! My man even said theyre better than real meatballs.
Thanks so much for the recipe :)
Awesome! I'm so glad you enjoyed them!
Just made these this evening. Absolutely brilliant! Thanks so much for this great recipe Alissa!
I'm so glad you like them! Thanks Nathaniel!
Can I use red lentils?
I wouldn't chance it. Red lentils cook up much softer than brown, so you meatballs might not hold together very well.
If I freeze them do I warm them up from frozen or let them thaw if so then I cook them for how long?
I would let them thaw first, or thaw them in the microwave - otherwise they might stay frozen in the middle! From there you could either bake them at about 400 (10 minutes or so would be my guess) or microwave them at full power until they're fully heated.
These are amazing thank you!!!! Can I freeze these? If so, do you recommend how long?
I'm glad you like them! They should freeze just fine in a sealed container for about 3 months.
I have been making these so many times since I found the recipe and they have become a dinner staple in our house! Had them again for dinner last night, and it was a great succes. So tasty and satisfying with pasta. Many thanks for sharing, Alissa!
I'm glad you're enjoying them! Thanks Charlotte!
we love this recipe!!!!
you don't miss meat at all! The balls are fulll of flavour and have a superb texture. We served them on pasta in an arribiata sauce; to die for!!!
This will be a regular form now on for sure!!!
Thank you so much! i will be checking out your other recipes now!!!
That's awesome! I'm so glad you like them! Thanks Tania!
Would red lentils be ok in this recipe?
I'm not sure! Red lentils cook up much softer than brown lentils, so I think you'd have to at least make some adjustments to the recipe, like perhaps using more oats.
They tasted great but sadly they fell apart after simmering in the pasta sauce. I might bake them a bit longer next time. Thanks for the recipe.
I'm glad you thought they were tasty! I wouldn't recommend simmering them in sauce though - even if you bake them longer. I'd just add them to the sauce right before serving. :)
I can't wait to try this recipe. Sounds delicious!!! Thank you!!!
I hope you enjoy it!
I used dry green lentils and forgot to pick up onions...so I subbed green cabbage and crossed my fingers! Results were just delish, you’d seriously never know! Hit all the meaty savoury notes. Served with steamed broccoli, mushroom marinara and a good smattering of nooch. Thanks for the recipe!!!
Yay! Glad it worked out and glad you enjoyed it!!
These look so tasty!! I don't have red wine vinegar though - can I substitute or leave it out?
You should be able to substitute white vinegar or another variety. Balsamic would probably be nice as well!
These are excellent. I ran out of ground meat and needed something to do with spaghetti and I was pleasantly surprised, as a non-vegetarian, how much I really liked these and didn't miss the meat. I doubled the recipe and left off the oil in the baking step. It was so flavorful!
Yay! I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed them! Thank you so much Nicolette!
I don’t see the protein content in the nutrition profile. Any idea what it is? Going to make these with my spaghetti squash and homemade marinara for Sunday dinner. Yum!!
Whoops! Thanks for letting me know I missed that. I just added it!
These were great! I ended up halfing the recipe since I have a smaller food processor and they turned out fine. I also added some fresh parsley to the mix!
Awesome! Glad you enjoyed them!
My turned out crispy but tasty! I wonder how I can tweak the recipe so they won’t turn out as crispy?
Glad they were tasty! Try lowering the heat a bit and baking them a bit longer.
Are these firm or do they end up mushy. It’s a texture thing for me and I want to chew them not have them mush up.
After my first attempt these turned out looking really good. They were a little dry,so actually have been using them in soup and stews and are REALLY good. I froze a big batch and just throw a few in as needed.
Thank you for all of your recipes and suggestions.
I love the idea of using these in soup! I'm so glad you enjoyed them - thanks so much Daniel!
I’m all the way over in Switzerland and made these tossing a beaten egg in to bind since I was afraid they might crumble- added a half teaspoon of smoked paprika since I can’t get liquid smoke here - amaaaazing taste - agree will never buy veggie meatballs again!! Many thanks!
Yay!! I'm glad you enjoyed them! Thanks Sheila!
I made a triple batch of these. So easy to make up. I think I slightly overcooked my lentils so they were a little dense. Great flavor though. We ate some as an appetizer with a sweet chili sauce as a dip and they were so tasty. Also had them in Lentilball Submarine Sandwiches which was super. I plan to make them again with German seasonings and have them with a mushroom gravy. Thanks for a great recipe.
That all sounds delicious!! I'm so glad you enjoyed them! Thanks Joan!
Hi, I tried your Italian Style Lentil Meatballs. They were tasty! I used canned instead of dried lentils. The mixture was a little soft. Would you skip the heating of the lentils if they are canned?
Yes, no need to boil them if they're canned or precooked. Thanks for mentioning that - I just updated the recipe to clarify. I'm glad they still turned out tasty though!
Made these tonight. We had meatball hoagies. Delicious!
I'm so glad you enjoyed them!
Guessing I should have used a big processor? I had to stuff everything in my Cuisinart and by the time all was incorporated I'm thinking mix was too mushy. I'll split portions or get a bigger processor. Cooking now, so I'll let you know how they turned out.
Hi,
I’d like to try this recipe. What pasta sauce is your fav for these meatballs?
I like them best with marinara sauce! Store bought or homemade both work! Here's my recipe for homemade: https://www.connoisseurusveg.com/marinara-sauce/
I have been a vegetarian for 10 years and these were the BEST meatballs I have had in the last 10 years. I couldn't stop eating them at the table. oink. Delicious!!
I did not have rolled oats, but instead had (she says embarrassingly) stale puff pastry cornucopia left over from Thanksgiving. This made a nice crumb, albeit fatty, but adding this and getting great results is a testament to the ruggedness of the recipe.
No more tasteless supermarket veggie meatballs for me. I have found the best. Thank you!
Way to improvise! I actually find myself substituting old bread or ground up crackers in recipes like this quite a bit when I don't have oats on hand. I'm so glad you enjoyed these! Thanks Mimi!!
These came out SO good! I followed the recipe for the most part. The only thing I changed is that I added a bit of olive oil as my mixture seemed dry. I also added extra garlic and cooked them in my air fryer. Next time I'm doubling this one :)
I'm glad to hear it worked in the air fryer, and so glad you enjoyed them!! Thanks Gloria!
These were amazing! My family loved them. Easy to make and so very delicious.
Woo hoo! I'm so glad they were a hit!
If I"m using panko would I just sub for the oat flour? It appears so based on your comment in the recipe, but want to double check. Thanks!
My picky husband likes lentils, but this is my first time making meatballs with lentils! :)
Yup - you should be able to substitute an equal amount of panko! Enjoy!!
Made these today, very tasty even though I forgot to put the tomato paste in.
I'm so glad you enjoyed them!! Thanks Janet!
made these yesterday sans the soy sauce and liquid smoke and they were DELICIOUS.
Yay!! Glad you enjoyed them!!
These are delicious!
Glad you like them!!
I made these the day you posted. Left out the thyme (couldn't find it in the darn spice cabinet) and the liquid smoke. They were awesome. So satisfying.
I'm so glad you enjoyed them!!
This is awesome! I really appreciate that they are gluten free. Just a note - soy sauce has gluten in it, but you can sub it it for tamari to keep it GF. :)
Oh, thanks for catching that! I just updated the post to include tarmari as an option. :)
These look fantastic!! Quick question, could I substitute the brown lentils for green? I tend to have green on hand more often.
I think green should work! I usually have luck swapping out one with the other in recipes. :)
So who won the competition? Hope it was you!
Haha! That would've be awesome! I didn't enter, but next time I'm feeling ambitious maybe I'll cook up a big batch and send them to work with him for everyone to try out. :)
these sound tasty - but how did they go down at the meatball shoot out???
Thank you! I ended up not entering them, partly because I was nervous about entering a contest where most of the judges would be omnivores, and party because I just got too busy! I might cook up a batch in the future just for everyone to try though. :)
Must I spray of use oil on take meatballs when cooking them in the oven. I don't typically cook with oil.
Be daring!! Don’t do it!!
You can skip it if you like. They won't brown as much, but they'll still cook up nicely and taste good!
I made these in my vegan restaurant. I added a little nutritional yeast and made it with a gravy. Served it with bulgar and a salad.my customers went crazy and are requesting I add it to the menu.