Will it Meatball?

Maybe you've decided to eat less meat. Maybe you've been told that you need less red meat in your diet. Or you need less cholesterol in your diet. There are a lot of reasons that you might be looking into meat alternatives and how to cook with them. Luckily, there's been an influx in plant-based meat alternatives and animal product substitutes recently, and they aren't priced to the point that it isn't worth trying them.

Whatever the reason, you might be overwhelmed by the sudden flood of alternative plant-based meat products on the market and how you can turn them into a suitable replacement that still satisfies that meat craving.

As far as brands go, the Impossible™ patties and ground meat have been my favorite of the available brands. They have the most similar taste and texture to actual beef in my opinion. One thing to note is that they seem to dry out a little faster than regular beef, so when frying it I always toss a little olive oil in the pan first. With some salt and pepper, it tastes just fine. But be aware that plant meat tends to cook faster than regular meat.

Recreating beloved recipes with meat alternatives? That's where the uncertainty (and fun) begins. Can you use it as a straight alternative? Do you need to add more seasonings or more liquid? Less liquid? How many elements in the recipe can you substitute, remove, or add?

My first uncertainty was that by having the Impossible™ meat as a meatball would be too much and that the slight off-taste that it has from not being real meat would be too overpowering to enjoy it. Because of this, I went with Italian style meatball recipes. They have a lot of seasoning in them, and that's very important when working with meat alternatives to enhance the flavor (and hide the fact that it isn't meat, depending on the person).

You'll see that there's a good deal of seasoning in the recipe, but also that I substituted soy milk for regular milk. However, I used cholesterol-free eggs instead of substituting out for an egg alternative. The reason for this is that I'm cooking for the purpose of lowering cholesterol rather than cooking for a vegan purpose or such.

My second uncertainty was if they would make meatballs, and they sort of did. As you get to the bottom of the mix, the liquid elements of the recipe start to overpower the solids so they stop holding shape as well and start to flatten (which made meat patties more than meatballs). The image shows how they got flatter as I made more. Next time, I would either add less of the oil or milk or add in more breadcrumbs to help soak up the extra liquid.

Ingredients:

1 lbs Impossible™ Meat

1/4 cup Italian Breadcrumbs

1/4 cup Milk (I used soy)

1 Egg or Egg Substitute

1/2 tsp Oregano

1 tbsp Dried Basil

1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tbsp Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Chopped Onions to taste. I used maybe 1/3 cup.

Parsley optional. The breadcrumbs I got had dried parsley in them already so I didn't add more.

Directions:

Spray baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl. I used my hands, but you can use a fork instead.

Scoop out some of the mixture and roll it into a ball to place on your sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until they have a nice browned exterior. The time will vary depending on the size of balls you make, but plant meat doesn't usually take as long to cook as regular meat.

Once they're done, serve them up with pasta or enjoy them on their own! Or make meatball subs!