Chickpea Balls with Curry Sauce

Great finger food, happy hour or even a tasty and delicious vegetarian main dish.
My grandchildren love them.
I even managed to get my second grandchild, who couldn’t stand them, to eat chickpeas.
You can prepare the dough well in advance and fry it at the last moment.
These balls can be fried the traditional way or even in the air fryer.

Meatballs, in general, are all irresistible, whether it’s the more traditional meatballs, tuna meatballs in sauce, or swordfish, and the numerous versions of vegetable meatballs, such as zucchini ones or the much-loved simple eggplant meatballs or with sauce.
In this recipe, I propose them with chickpeas and curry sauce.
The recipe is very simple, and you can even prepare the dough in advance, frying it only at the last moment. We start the procedure with already cooked chickpeas; otherwise, remember to soak the chickpeas 12-16 hours before cooking them for about 2 and a half hours in a traditional pot or 30 minutes in a pressure cooker.

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Cost: Very economical
Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Portions: 5
Cooking methods: Frying, Air Frying
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

290.11 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 290.11 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 29.90 (g) of which sugars 5.29 (g)
Proteins 10.06 (g)
Fat 14.41 (g) of which saturated 2.29 (g)of which unsaturated 9.42 (g)
Fibers 6.19 (g)
Sodium 250.22 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 150 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Ingredients for Chickpea Balls with Curry Sauce

To make Chickpea Balls with Curry Sauce, we need:

8.8 oz cooked, boiled chickpeas (also drained from a can)
1 egg
1.8 oz breadcrumbs (Sicilian style, see my recipe)
1 tsp curry
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp mustard
as needed breadcrumbs (Sicilian style)
as needed sunflower oil
5.3 oz Greek yogurt
3 tsps curry
1 tsp mustard
as needed salt
as needed pepper

Chickpea Balls with Curry Sauce

Tools for Chickpea Balls with Curry Sauce

Things we need to make the

1 Food Processor
1 Pan

Steps

Let’s go to the kitchen

The first thing to prepare is the Sicilian style flavored breadcrumbs with my recipe, click here.
Use boiled chickpeas, and drain them
pour them into a food processor along with 1 egg
to the breadcrumbs, curry, sweet paprika, and mustard, add a small pinch of salt and a grind of pepper.
Blend until you get a thick paste, adding more breadcrumbs if needed.
Transfer the obtained dough into a bowl.
The consistency should be dense but not too much. Adjust it if necessary with a tablespoon of breadcrumbs.
On a plate, place the breadcrumbs for breading. Wet your hands and take a walnut-sized portion of dough each time to form the balls. Quickly pass them in breadcrumbs.
Place the balls on a plate.
Now decide the frying mode:
If using an air fryer, spray the balls with a little seed oil and cook for 5 minutes at 392°F.
If using an immersion fryer, fill it with seed oil and heat it to 392°F, place the balls in the basket, and cook until golden brown.
In a pan, which is my preferred cooking method, add a little seed oil and heat it until small bubbles form around a wooden skewer stick.
Fry the balls, making sure they turn golden on both sides.
Drain them and transfer to a bowl with absorbent paper.
Mix the Greek yogurt with 3 teaspoons of curry, 1 teaspoon of mustard, salt, and pepper, and if you like, a bit of chili pepper.
Serve the balls with the sauce and vegetables of your choice.