Baked lentil meatballs are a tasty and easy-to-make second course. Thanks to the oven baking, the lentil meatballs will also be light and crunchy. For this recipe, you can cook dried lentils or use leftover lentils.
If you like lentils, don’t forget to read
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 2 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 2
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 203.16 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 18.33 (g) of which sugars 1.99 (g)
- Proteins 7.08 (g)
- Fat 10.78 (g) of which saturated 1.87 (g)of which unsaturated 0.50 (g)
- Fibers 7.02 (g)
- Sodium 435.68 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 180 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 2 people
- 1 1/4 cups cooked lentils
- 2 slices sandwich bread
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
Tools
- 1 Baking tray
- 1 Food mill
Procedure
Making baked lentil meatballs is very simple, here are the steps to follow and some tips to make them delicious.
If you don’t have cooked lentils, I recommend cooking them in a pot or pressure cooker. Remember, to have good meatballs, they must be practically dry.
If you want, you can also use pre-cooked lentils, in this case, drain them well from the liquid present.
Pass the lentils through a food mill or mash them well with a fork until you obtain a thick cream.
You can also use a chopper, but not an immersion blender because you would have to add liquids to blend them.
Take some leftover dry bread or sandwich bread, soak it in milk, and add it to the lentils.
Mix well, season with salt, a pinch of oil, and a pinch of pepper. If you like, you can also add half a teaspoon of curry.
Form round meatballs and place them on a sheet of parchment paper on a baking tray. Bake in a preheated oven, fan mode at 392°F for 15-20 minutes, turning them halfway through cooking to brown them on all sides.
For a crunchy note, you can roll the meatballs in breadcrumbs.
When the meatballs are golden, you can turn off the oven, the lentils are already cooked, and the oven cooking is just to heat them and make them crunchy.
Your baked lentil meatballs are ready!
