More love to this dish than it ever was between “Lady and the Tramp”.

Can it get more romantic than this? This is the vegan version of the food served in “Lady and the Tramp”. This is saucy, gooey, delicious, full of flavor and while eating this I just felt “dayum this is so good”. This is one of those really delicious dishes which is so suitable for both weekday as for more festive occasions (like a date). Serve it for kids, teenagers, adults or grandpa and grandma. Everyone will love it!

Vegan meatballs you say?

Yes, this recipe is all vegan so even though it looks like “real” meatballs, they’re not. If you use vegan mince you need to use a mince that is formable, otherwise you won’t be able to make balls out ot the mince. They will otherwise just fall apart. If you want to make it even easier for yourself, just buy pre-made vegan meatballs and just fry them in your pan. Remember though, that vegan mince and meatballs can vary very much in flavor and quality. I have used a soy mince which already had rather much taste so I didn’t need to add many ingredients to it to be done. So the recipe for the vegan meatballs in my recipe may not be 100% correct and work with your choice of vegan mince. Taste and see!

Also, I have made my meatballs rather small. The reason I do that is because I simply think the whole dish gets more flavor. I think it’s more delicious when the meatballs are smaller but that’s just a matter of taste. Do them the way you like.

I see sugar in the recipe, why?

This is something I learned from my Greek grandma - always add sugar to your tomato dishes. Because, when cooking with crushed tomatoes or passed tomatoes in a jar they most often have an underlying sour taste. That is because they often use tomatoes that aren’t 100% ripped before crushing them. So the sugar we add to the tomato sauce is only a way to balance the flavors = making it more delicious.

What pasta should I use?

Any pasta that is “long”. That means you can use spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine etc and obviously vegan too to make it vegan.

If you by any chance don’t want the “meatballs”…

…you can just skip them and eat the tomato sauce with the pasta too. That makes it into a pasta pomodoro dish and that is very delicious too. I personally love these vegan “meatballs” though and it makes the dish more satisfying and protein rich so I’d definitely pick that over only eating it with tomato sauce.

THIS RECIPE IS:

• Vegan

• Full of flavor

• Suitable for both kids and adults

• Saucy and gooey love

• Great for both everyday and weekend food

• More romantic than Lady and the Tramp

Vegan Meatballs in Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti

INGREDIENTS:

3 portions spaghetti, linguine or other pasta

350 g vegan formable mince or vegan pre-made meatballs

0.5 yellow onion

Possibly salt and pepper or other seasoning

Olive Oil

Tomato sauce:

0.5 yellow onion

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp tomato paste

400 g of crushed tomato

1 ripped tomato, can be excluded

1 tbsp sugar

salt and black pepper

1 handful fresh basil

Garnish with oven roasted tomatoes and fresh basil

HOW TO MAKE:

• Cook your spaghetti according to the instructions on the package.

• If using pre-made vegan meatballs; simply heat a frying pan with some cooking oil and fry them until cooked and golden.

• If making your own vegan meatballs: grate the onion and add that to the formable mince. Combine it together and add salt and black pepper if your mince don’t have any. You can also add herbs if you want to, but since we’re having a tomato sauce to this dish I keep my natural.

• Heat a frying pan with some cooking oil and fry your “meatballs” until cooked and golden. When they’re done, place them on the side.

• For the tomato sauce: Finely chop or grate the onion. Heat a frying pan and fry the onion and a pressed garlic soft.

• Add the tomato pasta, combine and then add the crushed tomatoes and some extra water. I also added one chopped ripped tomato but that can be excluded.

• Add sugar, salt, black pepper and plenty of basil and then let it simmer for approx 10’.

• Either add the spaghetti to the tomato sauce and combine all together or serve the tomato sauce over the spaghetti. The same goes with the vegan meatballs.

• I garnished with oven roasted tomatoes and more fresh basil. Add grated vegan “parmesan cheese” or nutritional yeast if you want to.