Italian Bean Balls & Spaghetti Squash

We have been meaning to share this recipe with you guys for a while. We've made them a bunch of times and we kinda feel stingy for keeping the yumminess to ourselves for so long. Honestly, we love these bean balls! And we think the recipe is perfect just the way it is. Many times we'll come across a recipe, or a few similar recipes, and we'll use them as just a loose point of reference. But this one is right on the money. It's from one of our absolute favorite food blogs, Oh She Glows. 

Aaron's childhood favorite was good ol' classic Spaghetti & Meatballs. This dish is kinda like the responsible adult version. And when I say "responsible adult",  being vegetarian or vegan has nothing to do with it…I'm referring to the idea of sneakily replacing red meat and pasta with wall-to-wall vegetables…and you still get your protein, by way of kidney beans and walnuts. But the health benefits of this meal seriously take a back seat to how deeeelish it is. So many layers of great flavor!

Every time we had this dish we made it just like you see in the pic above…with spaghetti squash and spaghetti sauce…but the awesome Italian Bean Balls are the focus of this post. We are big fans of spaghetti squash, but you can certainly use pasta…or heck, you can even make an Italian Bean Ball Hero!

When we prepared ours, the first thing we did was roast our spaghetti squash. We blogged a quick how-to here. Once it was ready we kept it warm, covered in foil, on top of the oven.

And as far as sauce, just go with your favorite homemade or jarred variety.

Here is what you'll need for the bean balls:

3/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped and toasted

3/4 cup rolled oats, processed into a coarse flour

1 cup shredded carrot

1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped

2-3 tablespoons finely chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (about 2 large)

3 large garlic cloves, minced

1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons ground flax + 3 tbsp water, mixed

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, or to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and toast your walnuts for 7-9 minutes, until fragrant and golden.

Meanwhile, add the oats into the food processor and process until finely chopped. You want the texture to be like a coarse flour.

Now add your oat flour, grated carrot, chopped parsley, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, walnuts, into a large bowl. Stir to combine.

Add the drained and rinsed beans into the food processor and process until finely chopped. You want the mixture to be a coarse paste with some beans still intact, but don't completely puree the mixture. 

Stir the processed beans into the bowl with the vegetables and oat flour.

Now you can make your flax "egg". You can buy flax that is already ground, but we usually have seeds that we pulse in the food processor until ground. 

Just whisk together the ground flax and water in a small bowl. Let it sit for only 15-20 seconds, any longer, and it will get too thick. Then stir it into your bean mixture until fully combined. 

Next, stir the oil, oregano, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes (if using) into the bowl, adjusting amounts to taste if necessary.

Shape the mixture into 18-20 balls (the size of golf-balls), packing each ball tightly between your hands so it holds together well. Place each ball onto the prepared baking sheet an inch or two apart.

Bake for 20 minutes, then gently flip the balls and and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden on both sides.

While ours baked in the oven we made one of our fave sauces. It's called "Spicy Slurpy Spaghetti Sauce", and it's from one of our favorite cookbooks, Isa Does It. 

All of the ingredients are right there in the pic. Crushed tomatoes, a chopped onion, minced garlic, brown sugar, a little salt, a handful of herbs & spices, including a generous dose of red pepper flakes. It is so delicious!

After baking, place balls on a cooling rack for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

Ready to serve…just sprinkle some ribbons of fresh basil on top, and you are set! We have made this exact meal many times. The bean balls really have so much depth of flavor…and the texture is perfect. They are delicious, and I think it would be hard to find tastebuds who would disagree. 

We hope you love them, and we'd love to hear about your experiences in making them…any things that you changed…or if you do in fact serve them as an Italian Bean Ball Sub. We'd love to see pics too!

Happy Eating!

xo, Jenny & Aaron

Recipe Review: Roasted Sweet Potato, Wild Rice, and Arugula Salad

Easter Sunday was quiet for us, and this was a welcome change of pace. Its very very rare for us to take a day off. And even when we say we're taking a day off, a little bit of work will sneak into the day...like packing some orders, or priming boards for the next day. But this Easter was an actual day off. And being that it was a sunny day we decided to go for a walk. All of the boardwalks and amusements parks up and down the Jersey Shore open up on Easter Sunday, including our very own right here in town. So the two of us walked up there to check out the festivities. It was very crowded, which is great. All of the boardwalks are still in the rebuilding phase after hurricane Sandy, so the more business the better. But at the risk of sounding like a downer, it was sad to see that so much of the old charm was gone. Everything is rebuilt and new, so the kitsch value is lost. The owners of the stands definitely did their best to add some fun with bright paint colors, but for me, so much of what I love about these sea shore fun spots is their vintage appeal. But I'm confident that with time it will all be restored to its former glory. A couple things did not change at all. The signature smells. The pizza stand smelled exactly the same...and so did the French Fry stand. But as great as those smelled to us, we weren't going to be stopping for a bite. Why? you may ask...

Well, because we really couldn't wait to get home to make our dinner. Which was Roasted Sweet Potato, Wild Rice, And Arugula Salad from Pinch of Yum. 

Now make sure that you don't take the word salad at face value. I guess the underlying bed of greens makes it a salad...but this dish is real hearty and bursting with flavor! It is so bright and fresh and comforting. And it was perfect for the day! When you get glimpses of sunny Spring weather you instantly start thinking of fresh, healthy meals. This was a great dinner but would also make a fantastic lunch. I know this because we had it for lunch the following day! The star of this recipe is the homemade lemon dressing. It is just plain magical. The big dose of lemon zest is wonderful.

Ok, first...can we pause to acknowledge the awesome size of this organic sweet potato. Aaron instantly was striking Heisman trophy poses with it. You could totally round up the kids to play a game of Easter touch football with this. 

So the recipe started off with peeling this beast.

And then after you dice it up you get it coated with some olive oil and the spices. Roasted sweet potatoes are just sweet and buttery and work great as the foundation of a meal.

And once the potato is seasoned and oiled it goes for a ride in the oven to roast until it's tender and the edges brown a bit. Would you believe that a single potato filled this entire cookie sheet?! 

And while the potato was roasting we whipped up the awesome dressing in the food processor. I don't know about you...but I get absolutely invigorated when I zest some lemons. That's probably the element in this dressing that makes it far superior to any dressing you can buy already bottled. The fresh lemon zest! It's all about the Zest!

And while I was doing the dressing Aaron was getting the wild rice made. We added some classic spices like sage, thyme, pepper, etc...And once it was ready we added some of the dressing to it in order to marry the flavors.

When everything comes together it lays atop a bed of Arugula and other favorite Spring greens. The warm wild rice and roasted sweet potatoes make the dish so comforting...and by gosh, it's topped with a handful of cashews. The cashews are the perfect finishing topper...and then you drizzle the whole bowl with the dressing.

Oh my goodness! I can't get over how good the dressing was. Our mouths were so so happy! It was the perfect meal for our Easter day. It was just us two, a nice walk in the sunshine, a quiet calm day, and the punctuation of this fab meal to cap the afternoon and bring us into a relaxing evening. We wouldn't change a thing!

If this recipe seems even a tiny bit your style, you just have to try it!

So, bolstered with this fab meal we finished our night with a few episodes of True Blood...yep...we are late to that party. We just never got around to watching it. The two of us aren't the hugest vampire fans. We definitely consider ourselves zombie people. ha! So we honestly weren't sure if True Blood would be for us. But after 2 episodes we were hooked. Its really entertaining. We also thought we were watching a show that was over and done with. So when we saw a commercial this weekend for a new season we were shocked. We have a whole lot to watch in order to be brought up to speed so that we can watch the final season in real time with everyone else.

But yes...to stay on topic. Huge thumbs up for this recipe. Make sure to go and check out all the details on Pinch of Yum!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Happy Spring! 

xo Jenny & Aaron