Easy Vegan Meatballs are flavorful, hearty and made with pantry staples you probably have on hand right now. They hold up well in marinara sauce, and are perfect served with spaghetti. No vegan meats involved.
If you are looking for truly meaty meatballs that you can’t tell are vegan, try these Impossible Meatballs. And for even more ideas, check out these Grape Jelly Meatballs and Swedish Meatballs!
These chickpea meatballs are flavorful, satisfying and just plain amazing on top of some spaghetti noodles with marinara sauce. The best part is how simple they are to make.
Now, they aren’t going to fool a meat eater into thinking they’re eating meat. But they definitely satisfy the spaghetti and meatballs craving!
You might also love this Best Ever Vegan Spaghetti with lentil-meat sauce. And don’t forget to serve spaghetti with Vegan Garlic Bread!
Why I love these vegan meatballs
- The ingredient list is short, you probably have everything you need right now. No need for store bought vegan meats.
- When the meatballs are baked, they firm up and become quite sturdy, so they are perfect for warming in marinara sauce.
- The balls are quite flavorful themselves, but when you add them to your favorite marinara sauce, they are even more full of flavor.
How to make vegan meatballs
- In a bowl, mix the ground flaxseeds and water. Set aside to thicken.
- In a food processor (or mash by hand), process the beans until no whole beans are left. They should look flaky, not a total paste.
- Add the processed beans to a bowl, along with the flax/water mixture and the rest of the ingredients.
- Stir, use your hands if needed to get everything incorporated.
- Roll into heaping tablespoon sized balls.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Finally, add the cooked chickpea meatballs to a pan of warmed marinara sauce. Stir gently to coat. Serve over spaghetti with optional vegan parmesan, if desired.
Gluten-free option
To make this meal gluten free, swap gluten free breadcrumbs for the regular breadcrumbs, or even rolled oats (certified gluten free). And serve over gluten free pasta.
How to store leftovers
The balls will keep in a covered container, either in marinara or not, for 3-4 days.
To freeze: Instead of adding the cooked meatballs to marinara, cool completely, then freeze in a ziplock freezer bag or container. You can reheat the balls in the oven, or simple throw them in marinara sauce on the stove until warm.
Want more amazing vegan pasta recipes?
- The Best Vegan Alfredo
- Vegan Mac and Cheese
- Vegan Stuffed Jumbo Shells
- Vegan Baked Ziti
- The BEST Vegan Lasagna
Easy Vegan Meatballs
Ingredients
Vegan Meatballs
- 3 tablespoons ground flax
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 cups drained and rinsed chickpeas *this is how much is in 2 cans of chickpeas
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (see notes for gluten free option)
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1 teaspoon italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
For serving
- 8 ounces spaghetti noodles (gluten free if needed)
- (1) 25 oz jar your favorite marinara sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a small bowl, stir together the ground flax and 8 tablespoons water. Let sit for 5 minutes while you prepare the chickpeas.
- In a food processor with the "S" blade, add the chickpeas and pulse until there are almost no whole beans left. If you do not have a food processor, you can mash them by hand with a potato masher. Add the processed chickpeas to a large mixing bowl.
- Now add the flax/water mixture, breadcrumbs, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning and salt to the bowl. Stir with a large wooden spoon until well combined. The mixture will be very thick; sometimes I even use my hands to make sure everything is incorporated well.
- Roll into balls (about a heaping tablespoon each) and place on a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet.
- Place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, turning once halfway through.
- While the meatballs are baking, prepare spaghetti noodles according to package instructions. Warm the marinara sauce in a large pan, big enough to add the vegan meatballs to.
- When the meatballs are done cooking, carefully place them in the marinara sauce. Gently stir to coat, but be careful not to break them as they aren't as firm as regular meatballs.
- Serve over cooked spaghetti noodles with optional vegan parmesan, if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
- Gluten Free: Substitute gluten free breadcrumbs or gluten free rolled oats for the regular breadcrumbs to make it gluten free. And serve over gluten free pasta.
- Air Fry: Air fry the meatballs instead at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes.
- If you don’t have Italian seasoning on hand, you can use 1/2 teaspoon oregano and 1/2 teaspoon basil.
- This works with black beans or kidney beans as well, for a slightly different flavor.
- Nutritional information is an estimate only, and is for the meatballs only (about 3-5 of them, depending on how big you roll them).
Nutrition
*This post was originally published May 2018, and has been reposted with better instructions and more step by step photos.
LOVE these! Next time i’m going to replace the italian seasoning with Zataar and make gyros with them.
Sounds great! Thank you.
These are SO tasty. I’ve made them twice now. The second time I added more of the same spices and like them even better. I’ve been experimenting with cooking different vegan meals and these are my favorite of them all. They even taste good cold. 🙂 My 4 year olds like them, too! Thank you for the great recipe.
You’re welcome! I’m glad you all enjoy them.
How many meatballs does this make?
About 20-24 depending on how big you make them.
Thank you! I think I made them too big the first time. They turned out great the second time!!
Tried these as our first plant based “meatballs “ for our subs. They were very good! Even the hubs liked them!
Mine came out a bit dry but for my first attempt at them they were wonderful, thank you for sharing!
Wow these meatballs were amazing. I couldnt find nutritional yeast so I used yeast extract instead. They came out really tasty and I had seconds and thirds!
I tried to give 5 stars but wasnt able to for some reason. This is definitely going in my ‘fave recipe’ section, thank you!
Hi Nora! Looking to make these for a special Halloween dish. I need a ball that will hold up in boiling water for about 8 minutes. How do you think these will do? Also if I chose to make these with eggs, how many the replace the flax? Thanks!
Hi! Well, I’ve never tested that, but I have a feeling they will fall apart. They do well in marinara sauce but I’m not so sure about boiling hot water. I don’t use eggs so I haven’t tried it, probably 2 though. Thank you!
Hi Nora. I’d love to try these but is your tablespoon 15 ml or 20 ml?
15 ml. Thanks!
Can you replace flax seed powder with chia seeds?
Yes you can.
I made these and loved them. Not mushy at all! Any idea how long they keep in the fridge?
I’m so glad you loved them! I would say 3-4 days, especially if you keep them separate from the sauce. They freeze well, too! Thank you.
My husband and I recently made the decision to change to a vegan lifestyle. We were having trouble finding good recipes that we both loved and thank the universe we found your website! Your recipes are amazing!! I just made the spaghetti today and it was better than actual spaghetti and meatballs. I didn’t have garlic powder so I added minced garlic that was the only change I made to this recipe. I’ll definitely usie this recipe to make meatball subs!!!
Thank you so much, that means the world to me! I’m so glad I can help in your transition to vegan, and that you enjoyed the spaghetti and meatballs. 🙂
Going to try this tonight! Can I use something else to replace nutritional yeast?
Great! You can leave it out if you want, it just adds a “cheesy” flavor. But if you don’t have it, that’s fine.
Made these tonight and the whole family (including two very picky kids and one sceptical husband) loved them. These will definitely be a staple in our home from now on, thanks Nora! I didn’t have garlic or onion powder, so used 3/4 tsp garlic salt and 1/2 tbsp minced garlic instead (and no additional salt). We must have rolled them smaller than you as there were 31 balls in total. They were really firm and not mushy at all, actually wished I had soaked them in spaghetti sauce before serving – contrary to some of the other comments above lol 🙂 Can’t wait to make another batch!
Thanks Anna! I’m so glad your family enjoyed them!
Can you use any other beans instead of chickpeas? I am allergic to them
Thank you
Lentils would work, navy beans or pinto beans should work, too.
I made these tonight to use in meatball subs. They tasted great but I wish they were a little more chewy in consistency. Could you add vital wheat gluten to these and knead them a bit before making the balls to up the ‘chew’ factor? Would I need to add anything else and how much wheat gluten do you think I’d need? I’m in the process of becoming vegan and my husband is usually on board but he and I both wish the texture of these balls were just a bit more substantial.
Thanks!
Thanks Kate. You probably could if you wanted a more “meaty” ball. I honestly don’t know how much I would add, it would kind of become an entirely different recipe at that point! You would probably need more liquid, maybe less beans, I’m not sure without testing it a lot.
Made them today. Quite tasty, but chunky. Next time, I will pulse the chickpeas a bit longer.
Hi Nora – I’m going to try your recipe for my friend who follows a vegan diet. I usually make my traditional Italian feast for the holidays, but she cannot eat my meatballs made from beef. You call out yeast in your recipe. Is it absolutely necessary or can that ingredient be eliminated?
How kind of you! The nutritional yeast is not absolutely necessary, it adds quite a bit of flavor though. It’s not like regular yeast at all, it has a cheesy type flavor but doesn’t affect the structure very much at all. So yes, leave it out if you want but they are better with it. Thanks!
hi Nora,
the family really like the recipe. One question though: the ‘meat’ balls broke up really easily – when I put them in the sauce and gently stirred the balls broke into small parts. Any suggestions on how to make them more sturdy? thanks, Stefan
Hi there! I’m glad your family liked this recipe! The balls are more fragile than normal meatballs would be, so you do have to stir them very carefully in the sauce. Mine don’t usually break that easily though. If you make them a bit smaller, and cook them longer they should be sturdier. If you make them quite large, and don’t cook them long enough they will be mushier and break easy. Hope that helps!
How many meatballs does this make if I made them according to your recipe?
Thanks!
It depends on how big you make them, but I usually get around 20-24 balls.
Oh my goodness, these are amazing! I have an extremely restricted diet, so I’m having to get creative to add some variety to it. I’ve been experimenting with meatballs and falafel instead of just eating beans all the time for protein. I make black bean, mushroom, and walnut meatballs, which I love, but I decided to try these to see if I liked them too, and WOW! They are SO good! The texture and the flavor is just spectacular! I used homemade, gluten free bread crumbs (essentially half almond flour half nutritional yeast seasoned with garlic powder, salt, parsley, and Italian seasoning) and omitted the onion powder, since I don’t eat onion, but otherwise, I kept it exactly as written, and these are just incredible! I’m super excited to start adding these to my regular diet, probably with roasted spaghetti squash and veggies. Thank you SO MUCH! <3
I’m so glad you are able to find some new recipes to add to your restricted diet! So glad you enjoyed these and it’s good to know your substitutions worked out fine. Thank you so much!! I really appreciate the feedback. 🙂
Can I use panko breadcrumbs? Maybe pulse them in Food processer first to make them finer?
Yes you can, you shouldn’t need to make them finer in a food processor first, I have used them before and it worked just fine. 🙂
Do these freeze well? I’d love to bake a hug batch, then just pull out a few at a time as needed.
Yes they totally do freeze well! I just cook them as the recipe says, let them cool and them throw them in a large ziplock freezer bag. You can reheat either in the microwave or back in the oven until warmed through.
I’m making these for a friend going through chemo as an easy heat up dinner. Do you think it would matter if I froze them in individual portions with meatballs, pasta, and sauce all together or would they mush up?
Thanks so much, excited to make them!
Well that’s awfully kind of you. 🙂 I haven’t personally tried freezing them altogether, but I know when you freeze cooked pasta, it tends to get real mushy when you re warm it. However, I did find some good information here that may help! If it doesn’t need to be frozen, it will all last for 4-5 days in the fridge, so you could portion it that way, too.
They are absolutely incredibly delicious. Now it’s one of our favourite dishes! Thank you for sharing!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the spaghetti and meatballs! You are so welcome!
Mine came out mushy. Any suggestions??
I’m sorry to hear that Robyn! Hmm… I’ve made these several times and never have mine come out mushy. I mean, they aren’t really pretending to be meat, but they shouldn’t be mushy either. 🙂 I’m thinking about what kind of breadcrumbs you used? Did you make your own or use store-bought ones? Did you bake them long enough? Also, if you add them to the sauce, they will get mushy pretty quickly.
Yum!! This looks so good. I can’t wait to try!
Thanks Amanda! I hope you enjoy it!
i have tried it and it was so so yummy and delicious..my whole liked it a lot ..thanks for sharing
That’s great to hear Albert! I’m so glad everyone enjoyed the recipe.