Vegetarian Meatballs
These zucchini meatballs are a delicious meal for everyone – vegetarians and meat-eaters alike, and I love them for that very inclusive quality. Vegetarians will love them because they are hearty, satisfying, tasty and filled with good vegetable ingredients. Meat-eaters will love them for the same reasons – hearty, satisfying, tasty and honestly such a great stand in for regular meatballs that you won’t even miss the meat.
Prep the Zucchini
The first step in making these meatballs is in preparing the zucchini. Zucchini has a high water content and it’s important to extract some of that moisture so that the meatball is not too wet. This just involves grating the zucchini, sprinkling it with salt and letting the salt draw out the water. Then, wring the zucchini as dry as you can with a clean kitchen towel. It’s not difficult – it just takes about ten minutes.
Ingredients for Zucchini Meatballs
The other ingredients in this recipe are breadcrumbs, eggs, grated onion, Parmesan cheese, parsley, oregano and salt and pepper – all common kitchen staples. Toss all these ingredients together and then start shaping the mixture into twelve little balls – each a little smaller than a golf ball.
Cooking the Zucchini Meatballs
You can bake the meatballs in the oven or make them in the air fryer. If you’re using your oven, pour a little olive oil on a baking sheet and roll the meatballs around to coat. Bake at 375˚F for about 30 minutes, giving them a couple of turns during the cooking process to brown evenly. If you plan on using your air fryer, spray or toss the meatballs with oil and air-fry at 375˚F for about 20 minutes, rotating the meatballs halfway through.
Vegetarian Meatballs and Marinara
You also have options when it comes to serving these meatballs. You could offer them with marinara sauce, eating them over rice, or as a meatball sub, or just with some bread to mop up any leftover sauce.
Spaghetti and Zucchini Meatballs
You could also serve these zucchini meatballs over spaghetti for a traditional spaghetti and meatball dinner. Add a side salad or a caesar salad on the side. This is a dinner that is a hit with everyone – vegetarian or not.
These are absolutely wonderful. I thought they were a bit salty but I think I may have overdone it with the salt. You would never know they were zucchini exept for seeing it.
So yummy and easy! Will make it again this weekend for my wife and kids.
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I left out the parmesan and added more bread crumbs and a chopped roasted hatch chili pepper for my vegetarian guests. I’m glad I doubled the recipe because my meat-loving guests gobbled it up in addition to the beef meatballs I also made.
Yummy! I made the air fryer version and they worked perfectly! I used thickly grated Parmesan and that added little cheesy morsels inside – a treat. I made chicken to go with them, but next time they’ll work for a dinner on their own,
This is a delicious recipe for using our zucchini,summer or any other season of the year!! Made them in September for the first time and everyone loved them!! Making them today,for a repeat performance! Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipes with us!!!
How would I replace the bread crumbs with almond or coconut flour to lower the carb content?
I would recommend using gluten free breadcrumbs instead. Not all gluten free breadcrumbs are low in carbs, however, so check the package. Otherwise, both your ideas – almond or coconut flour – will work. Start with 1/2 cup and just add as much as you need to get the mixture to hold together and make sure you squeeze as much liquid out of the zucchini as possible.
l would love to try zucchini meatballs recipe this way. Thanks for sharing.
Other than finding them too salty, I really liked them. Next time I’ll use less or leave out the salt.
Hi Meredith, I would love to try this recipe for zucchini meatballs. What could I use to substitute for the eggs? There is a family member with an egg allergy.
Thanks!
You could try a flax seed egg. Combine 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds with 3 tablespoons of water for each egg. You could also try cornstarch or whole wheat flour to bind the zucchini balls.
I made these in the air fryer and then mixed them with sundried tomato pesto. Delicious!
Looking forward to enjoying these. Thank you
These are absolutely delicious. I made one mistake however; I shredded the zucchini instead of grating it. I also started a day ahead and after shredding and squeezing as much liquid out as I could, I lined a baking sheet with a few layers of paper towels, spread the zucchini out and let it sit out over night. Then I had some stale artisan sourdough, rosemary bread, so I put that in a food processor and crumbled it and left it out over night as well.
Thank you BJC Meredth, these are definitely a crowd pleaser.