Tempeh Meatballs and Spaghetti from Isa Does It!

I had been hearing about this vegan cookbook "Isa Does It!" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz for a while, so I finally went for it and ordered it. I am so glad I did! She has a great, fun approach to cooking and uses a lot of satisfying, accessible ingredients in her recipes. When I was first flipping through it after it arrived on Wednesday, my eyes stopped on the Tempeh Meatballs and Spaghetti with Spicy Slurpy Spaghetti Sauce and I knew what we were having for dinner that night!

Another thing I like about this book is that it is meant for weeknight recipes, though she admits that this one is a bit more time-consuming than some. I still found it to be pretty easy though, and it made us a big dinner for two nights. I think I would keep it for a weekend night, but she suggests that you could boil the tempeh the night before to speed the process, and if you also used store bought marinara it would be even quicker.  It looks like a lot of ingredients, but most of them are pantry staples and it all comes together pretty quickly! Definitely worth the bit of work involved and the homemade sauce was awesome! I have included the recipe below with some of my own tips to make all of the elements come together smoothly in the kitchen.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 package spaghetti

For the meatballs:

• 1 pound tempeh (I got 2 8oz. packages from Trader Joe's)
• 1 cup water
• 1 Tbsp. tamari or soy sauce (I used my Bragg's Liquid Aminos)
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 Tbsp. ketchup
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• several pinches freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup very finely chopped yellow onion (about pea-sized, for the meatballs to stick together)
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs (got mine at Trader Joe's)
•   Olive oil, for panfrying

For the Spicy Slurpy Spaghetti Sauce:

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped (I just used the other half of the onion from the meatball recipe)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. light brown sugar
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (I did 3/4 tsp. because I'm a wimp ;)
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 24 oz.can crushed tomatoes with basil (mine came in a 28 oz. can)
• 1 tsp. salt

Note: I would recommend  doubling the sauce recipe if you like a lot on your pasta, like we do. It was still awesome, but I'm going to double it next time.

1. I started out by prepping: getting all of the ingredients out on the counter, chopping the onion finely and dividing it into two bowls (one for the meatballs and one for the sauce) and peeling 5 total garlic cloves.

2. Crumble the tempeh into very small pieces in a medium-sized pot. Add the 1 cup water, Bragg's liquid aminos (or soy sauce or tamari), and olive oil. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat and simmer, with the lid slightly ajar to let steam escape, for 15 minutes. Most of the water should be absorbed; if it's not, drain it. Place the tempeh in a bowl and place in the freezer to cool for about 10 minutes, giving it a stir after 5 minutes to help it cool evenly.

3. If you are making your own sauce, I started mine while I was waiting on the tempeh to cook and cool. To make the sauce: Preheat a medium pot over medium-low heat and add the olive oil. Saute the chopped onion for about 5 minutes, until slightly brown (mine took more like 10 minutes). Add the garlic and sautee until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the brown sugar and cook for about 1 minute, until it is dissolved and coats all of the onion. Mix in the thyme, oregano, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Add the tomatoes and salt and stir everything together. Cover the pot with the lid slightly ajar to let steam escape, and cook for 15 minutes. Note: I left the sauce over low heat while I got the rest of the meal together.

4. Once the tempeh is cool, add the garlic, ketchup, mustard, oregano thyme, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Mix in the onion. Now add the panko bread crumbs and use your hands to mix until it holds together very well. You can add extra bread crumbs by the tablespoon if it seems loose until you can form tight, compact balls, roughly the size of golf balls (I did add some extra bread crumbs and sort of gently squeezed them in my hands for a minute to form them. I had to handle them delicately, but they came out great!)

5. Get your pasta water boiling.

6. Preheat a large nonstick pan (she recommends cast iron to get a nice char to them, which I didn't do this time but will next time!) over medium heat for a few minutes. Coat your pan with a thin layer of olive oil. Add the meatballs one by one, rolling them in the pan to coat in oil. Cook them in two batches. Panfry for about 10 minutes, rolling them frequently to cook evenly. (I used a metal slotted spoon to very gently roll them around and brown all sides. I then lifted them out one by one with the metal spoon and put them on a plate lined with paper towels).

7. Since my spaghetti took 9 minutes to cook, I started it cooking at the same time I started my second batch of meatballs.

To serve two very hungry people, put about 1/4 each of the spaghetti and sauce on each plate, plus 5 or so meatballs each (mine made about 20 meatballs). I also topped ours with homemade vegan parm (see this post) and it was the perfect finishing touch. A salad and/or bread on the side would be great and make the pasta go even further, but we just went for it!

This was a real winner and will definitely be happening again soon! :)

Note: You can also find a lot of Isa recipes on the website the Post Punk Kitchen. They're all vegan!