Lets talk about some salty balls!

Hi everyone! I hope you all got to make some delicious almond feta. Please send me photos if you have, so I can include them on my posts, or feel free to join my Facebook page and post them there yourself. 

First up let me talk to you about stock. We use stock in a lot of recipes with out really thinking about what goes in it. It makes your dish tasty and is relatively cheap so who cares right? As long as its super easy to get the flavour into the dish. What most people don't do, is read the ingredients list. The first ingredient is usually salt. Don't get me wrong you need salt in stock, but not the amount that goes into the prepackaged ones. Sometimes stocks (especially your stock cubes and powders)  also have fillers, i.e. stuff that is put into it, just to make it bulky so you think you are buying more for your buck (rice flour, corn starch etc). Some even contain sugars, which is something that I need to avoid in my diet.

Since getting my Kitchenaid Cook Processor, making my own stock has been so easy. I don't follow a recipe, I simply keep all of my vegetable scraps in a plastic bag in the freezer and at the end of the week, before shopping day, I take any veges and herbs out of the fridge that look a bit past it. I throw them all in the cook processor with the vege scraps from the freezer and add a tablespoon of salt per approx. 1.5 cup of veges. I pulse the mixture until it all combines and becomes a paste. I then put it in the freezer for future use. I know exactly what has gone into it, and it always gives way more flavour then your store bought varieties. Because of the salt content, your stock paste will not freeze, and so you can easily scoop some out of the container when you need it. In all of the recipes I post, I will refer to this paste as "cook pro stock paste".

Now for today's adventure, let me introduce you to a meat ball alternative...

Moroccan Vege balls with couscous

This dish is made in 3 parts, the balls, the couscous and a dip accompaniment.

Couscous

Ingredients

• 2 cups of diced sweet potatoes
• 1 onion, halved and sliced thinly
• 1 Tbsp Meal inspirations Moroccan blend from chefs tool box
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 300g pearl couscous
• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 Tbsp cook pro stock paste
• 1 Tbsp honey or for vegan alternative maple syrup
• 1/2 cup pistachio nuts
• 3/4 cup mint leaves
• 1/2 cup sultanas

Method

1. Using half the olive oil, coat sweet potatoes and bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 15-20 or until golden. Set aside.
2. Heat a fry pan to medium. Add onion, spice mix, and remaining oil. Heat until fragrant whilst stirring.
3. Add pearl couscous, and stir through spices for approximately 1-2mins.
4. Add water, orange juice, stock paste and honey. cook for 10-15min until most of the liquid has been absorbed.
5. Add pistachio nuts, mint leaves, sultanas, and roasted sweet potatoes. Toss through couscous. Now it is ready to serve!

Vegeballs

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Bulgur
• 2 Tbsp of olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 onion
• 1 tsp of Meal inspirations Moroccan blend from chefs tool box
• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 sunflower seed kernels
• 1 Tbsp of linseed
• 3 Tbsp of almond feta
• 1 Tbsp savory yeast flakes

Method

1. Soak Bulgur in boiling water for 15min, set aside.
2. Place half of oil, garlic, onion and spice mix into cook pro with multi-blade. Pulse for 15 seconds.
3. Replace multi-blade with stir assist, and cook for 5 min, speed one, temp 90 degrees Celsius.
4. insert multi-blade and all other ingredients. Pulse for 15 seconds, scrape down sides and repeat until mixture becomes sticky and starts to come together in cook pro.
5. Roll mixture into balls (approx 30-35 balls)
6. Heat a fry pan to medium-high heat, place in rest of oil and cook balls on each side until golden. Turn the balls carefully with a pair on tongs so they do not fall apart.

Special Moroccan dip

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of coriander leaves
• 1/2 cup of mint leaves
• 1/4 tsp of ground cumin
• 2x2cm of fresh ginger (peeled)
• juice of 1 lime and its zest
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2Tbsp of honey (or maple syrup)
• salt to taste
• the green leaf of 1 scallion (often called shallots in Aus)
• 1/4 cup of pistachio nuts.

Method

1. Place all ingredients in mini bowl with mini-blade and pulse of 10seconds. Scrape down sides and repeat x 4 (50 seconds in total).

Serve vege balls on a bed of couscous with dip as a side, or on top of the dish as a garnish.

Happy cooking!

Love Mandy M