Chickpea Ballz!

Chickpeas. Ballz. Pasta. You literally cannot go wrong. Or, I should say, I couldn't go wrong since I'm the lovely lady who made it all. Okay, okay, I didn't make the pasta from scratch, but I did make the marinara. Yes, I was a marinara virgin. And, get this, I didn't use any recipe. I'm full of awesomeness!

I got the idea for the chickpea balls from Veganomicon, which has a recipe for beanballs and spaghetti (pg189) using kidney beans, which I don't really love. So, being the thinker that I am, I decided that chickpeas would be about 100 times better along with some extra spices. So, I set to work making a most tasty ball. But, what to serve with chickpea ballz? Pasta! What else? Haha. I had 2 jars of marinara in my cupboard, but I really wanted to test my kitchen skills and make my own. So I did. And, I could not believe how easy it was. And, get this: I actually used whole wheat penne...and liked it. I never used to like whole wheat pastas! Maybe I am growing up after all? NAH.

Chickpea Ballz Ingredients: (mine made 19 ballz)

• 2 cups cooked chickpeas
• 2 TB olive oil
• 2 TB Braggs liquid aminos 
• 1 1/3 TB steak sauce
• 1 TB or more minced garlic (I ran out of fresh and so used jarred)
• 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/8 tsp thyme
• 1/4 tsp dried basil
• 10 leaves fresh basil, minced-ish
• 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/4 slightly heaping cup vital wheat gluten

Chickpea Ballz Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a rimmed baking sheet and then set aside.
   
2. I threw my chickpeas into a food processor and pulsed a few times until there were no whole chickpeas, but a they were also not pureed, either.
   
3. Remove from the processor into a large bowl. Add in oil, Braggs, steak sauce, garlic, lemon juice, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, dried and fresh basil. Mix/mash together with a fork.
    

4. Now use your hands to mash in the bread crumbs and gluten until well combined. Let set a minute or two for the gluten to start bonding a bit. I mashed mined down in the bowl. I don't know why, I'm just giving the facts!
   
5. Now, use your paws to scoop out enough to make the size of a walnut in its shell. Maybe 1 1/2 TB? I don't know. Then squeeze the chickpea mix into a ball and set on the oiled baking sheet. Be sure to make them all roughly the same size so they cook about the same amount of time.
   
6. Once all the ballz are made, you'll bake them for about 15 minutes. Then use tongs to flip them over and cook another 8-10 minutes. You want them lightly browned. 

The ballz are great solo, but they are also great either dipped in a little steak sauce or into some marinara, like so: 

Marinara Ingredients:

• 1 - 14oz can diced tomatoes, partially drained
• 1- 8oz can plain tomato sauce
• 1/2 of a 4-oz can tomato paste
• 1 TB oregano
• 1/2 TB basil
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• lots of pepper
• some garlic salt
• 1 TB garlic powder
• 2 TB Braggs liquid aminos
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 TB sugar

Marinara Method:

1. Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the diced tomatoes. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. This cooks your tomatoes down a bit to make them more sauce-friendly.
2. Reduce heat to medium, then stir in the tomato sauce.  I also added all of my spices except the salt and the Braggs. Stir again to make sure the spices are incorporated.
3. After about 5 minutes, I whisked in the tomato paste and Braggs. Let simmer away for another 5 minutes. Then taste test! I needed to add sugar to mine as it seemed too acidic. So, I added 1 TB at a time and a bit of salt to the mix. You can add any other spices or herbs you'd like. See!!! It is so easy a child could do it. Well, not really that easy, but you get the picture.