The cold, harsh winter might make us dream of delicious vegetable meatballs - made from zucchini, spinach. No matter what the weather is outside, it is the winter season and spinach and zucchini are not particularly tasty during this time of year.
This shouldn't stop us from making spectacular vegetable meatballs - we must simply find the right recipes, which include the so-called winter ingredients.
Here we have 3 such recipes - the first one is for meatballs made from leeks; here's what you need:
Leek meatballs
Ingredients: 5 bunches of leeks, parsley, 3 eggs, 1 tablespoon of yoghurt, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, flour (as much as the mixture can absorb), 1 1/2 cups of oil, salt.
Preparation: Finely chop the leeks that have been cleaned ahead of time - for the meatballs we will only need the white part. Add parsley to taste, also celery if you have it at hand, for a better meatball flavor. Sprinkle some salt to all of this and place the entire mixture in a pot - pour in a cup of water and let the vegetables stew.
Remove from the stove once half the water has evaporated and the leeks have softened. When the mixture cools, put in the eggs, yoghurt and baking soda that you have "extinguished" in the yoghurt ahead of time. Stir well and begin adding the flour, in order for the mixture to thicken. Then scoop spoonfuls of the blend and put them in heated oil - fry until browned.
The next recipe is for meatballs made from cabbage - cut a medium-sized cabbage into thin strips and put it in salted water, in order for the cabbage to soften and stew. Once softened, drain the cabbage very thoroughly. Fry 2 finely chopped onion heads and add 3 tablespoons of flour to them - stir and remove from the fire.
Add the cabbage to the onions and flour, pre-whisked egg, ground black pepper, finely chopped celery and salt to taste. Shape meatballs of medium size from the mixture, flatten them, roll them in flour and fry on both sides.
And since spring is right around the corner, let us introduce a recipe for meatballs from nettle. For it you will need about 2 lbs of nettle tips, a few bunches of lovage, about 1 bunch of parsley, spearmint, 4 boiled eggs, 1 cup of beer, 1 tsp baking soda, 4 tablespoons yoghurt, salt, black pepper to taste, oil.
To the pre-chopped and parboiled nettle, add the finely chopped spices, beer, yoghurt and baking soda, finely chopped eggs, black pepper and salt. Scoop with a tablespoon and fry in heated oil. Once ready, put them in a container with a lid to stew. Serve with yoghurt.
