Tomato cheatballs

Finally it's the weekend! I hope you have some good plans for it. The sun is shining here, and we are going to take the waterbus to a close by shopping centre, and on the way back, we'll probably fly by the street food market. I hope that I can take some nice autumn shots on my camera while we are out, and maybe even some good food photos. The waterbus is a brilliant means of public transport. It's exciting to take the water route in town and get some fresh air on the deck at the same time. It makes a normal shopping trip feel like holiday. I think that there is a bit of an autumn breeze in the air today, so better wear enough clothing.

Last weekend I made these tomato cheatballs with pasta and tomato sauce. They are called cheatballs of course, because there is no meat in them. It was a very nice dish and a good combination. I used the Finnish protein product “Pulled Oats” in this recipe, but you could substitute it with for example seitan or some soya protein. Whatever you can get hold of. My pulled oats were the ones spiced with tomato, and I made the balls a little bit spicy with chilli.

Ingredients

Cheatballs

This recipe makes about 16 small cheatballs

240 g Pulled Oats Tomato

1 onion

1 clove black garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small yellow carrot grated

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp chilli flakes

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

2 tbsp tomato purée

2 tbsp breadcrumbs

Tomato sauce

1 tin of tomatoes

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Handful of fresh basil

Pasta

250g tagliolini, or any other pasta of your choice

Toppings

Grated cheese

Fresh basil leaves

Method

Start simmering the sauce first and then you can prepare the cheatballs in the meanwhile. Chop the onion and garlic finely for the sauce, cook them in olive oil until soft. Then add the tomatoes and seasoning and let reduce.

Chop the onion and garlic also finely for the cheatballs and cook them in olive oil until soft. Grate the carrot and mix all ingredients with the protein.

Shape small balls from the dough and bake them at 200 C for about 20 minutes.

Cook the pasta, and serve it with the cheatballs and tomato sauce. Add some grated cheese and fresh basil on the top.

Enjoy!