We are on Week 2 Day 2 of eating meatless on weekdays and today we made our own eggplant meatball recipe.

Since the Stay at Home order we have been eating well at the Thompson house.  Too well.  Although I’ve received a lot of flack over it, my husband actually came up with the idea to attempt going meatless on weekdays.  Last week was the first week and we crushed it!  There were no cheat days!

One difficulty has been finding recipes that don’t replace meat with another bad thing like frying in oil, a cup of soy sauce, or a pound of cheese.  Today’s creation does have some cheese, but is very healthy.

Try our eggplant meatball recipe (even our 16 year old son ate them).

Note – the “Prepare the Eggplant” portion of the recipe can be done a day ahead.  When I made this I prepared 2 eggplants.  One for this recipe and one I cooked 15 minutes longer for baba ganoush.

Print Recipe

4 from 1 vote

Eggplant Meatballs

These vegetarian meatballs are so amazing, even our 16 year old son ate them!

Prep Time1 hr 30 mins

Cook Time30 mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: vegetarian

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/8 tsp white pepper
• 1 dash cayenne pepper
• 1/3 cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
• 3/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs, beaten

Instructions

Prepare the eggplant

• Preheat oven to 400°
• Slice eggplant in half longwise and place on baking sheet cut side down
• Cook until soft about 45 minutes. Let cool completely.

While the eggplant is cooling

• Heat olive oil in frying pan on medium heat and cook onion until almost soft (3-5 minutes)
• Add garlic and cook 1-2 more minutes
• Remove from heat and let cool
• Mix cheese into eggs and add salt, pepper, white pepper, cayenne, basil, and parsley. Mix together

Assemble meatballs

• Scoop flesh from eggplant and add to egg and cheese mixture. Discard the skin.
• Add breadcrumbs and mix together
• Form into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper (makes 24)
  
• Refrigerate 20 minutes

Cooking

• Place baking sheet in oven (still 400°) and cook for 30 minutes, carefully flipping once after the first 15 minutes.
• Serve with a spicy marinara alone or on noodles, or zoodles (zucchini noodles)