I remember I first tried this veggie balls in IKEA in Berlin about 4 years ago. I was in a travel, visiting my vegan sister there. It was such a nice treat after shopping! I consider this meal as one of the best, in one line with falafel!
Recently I found several recipes of Veggie Balls in Ikea style that you can make at home. Usually they offer to add some flour to the dough. I tried to follow one of the recipes and added a cup of oat flour, but the result was not satisfying to my taste. The balls were like oat cookies, very dry and with strong oat flavour. So I changed the recipe to make this balls juicier. So here we go, sharing with you one of the best recipes I have in my cookbook.
IKEA Veggie Balls (Homemade)
Equipment
- Oven
Ingredients
- 1,5 cup Chickpeas raw / 650 g (cooked)
- 1 cup Green Peas frozen / 120 g
- 1 cup Sweet Corn frozen / 140 g
- 3 cubes Spinach frozen / 90 g
- 1 medium Carrot / 130 g
- 0,5 medium Red Bell Pepper / 100 g
- 1 cup Cabbage / 180 g
- 1 medium Onion / 130 g
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tsp Spices to taste: coriander
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp hot paprika
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp nutmeg
Instructions
- First step is to soak the chickpeas overnight. It is very important to use raw chickpeas and cook it by yourself, because canned chickpeas are usually overcooked and too soft and juicy. If you use dry chickpeas you will get a perfect dough and there will be no need to add any flour.
- Next day you put soaked chickpeas to boil and prepare the veggies in the meanwhile.
- Cut onion, carrot and bell pepper into little cubs. Chop the cabbage finely, then preheat the frying pen with olive oil.
- First fry onions until golden brown, then add bell pepper, then carrots.
- Cook the veggies for 5 min, until the carrot becomes soft. Add the spices you like and then add cabbage. Stir for 2 more min and add the rest of ingredients: green peas, corn and chopped spinach. Stir for another 2-3 min.
- The chickpeas must be cooked to that point. Usually it takes about 30 min. Don’t worry if it will be slightly raw. Just make sure it is chewable. Blend the chick peas and 1/3 of the veggies together in a blender. Rest of the veggies put in a bowl and smash it a little bit using a temper. Then mix everything together in a bowl (chickpeas and rest of the veggies). You can use your hands for it.
- The dough is ready, it must be a little bit sticky. If it is too sticky to create a ball you have no other choice than to add some flour (oat flour, chickpea flour, potato starch or rice flour). However better to do it without flour.
- Roll the dough into small balls and place the balls on the baking paper (spread a bit of oil on the paper in advance).
- Bake Veggie Balls for 30-40 min in oven (180 'C).
- Ikea Veggie Balls are ready!
Nutrition facts
270 kcal represents amount of calories in one portion (about 9 balls).
Notes
Serve this veggie balls with pasta, rice or bulgur and sauce of your choice. My favorite combination is spaghetti with veggie balls in tomato sauce.How to store Ikea Veggie Balls?
I usualy make a big portion and then freeze veggie balls after baking. Once I am in a mood for this treat again – I put as much as I need veggie balls in a hot sauce and defreeze them. Yummy prep! Really worth of effort.
Hope you will like it! Bon Appetit!
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Have a nice day!
🌱❤️🙏
