Peanut Balls - an Easy Vegan Meatball Alternative

these easy and inexpensive peanut balls are a great vegan meat substitute.

i've been making them for years and everybody loves them. even meat eaters (like me).
just try them!

for 2-3 persons you will need:

- a small can (200g) of salted & roasted snack peanuts - the kind you get at a bar with your beer
- 4-6 slices of toast (some toast contains butter, if you want to keep it vegan try to avoid that), slices of white bread or leftover bread rolls will do as well
- a  shallot or a small onion
- some fresh parsley
- spices & herbs, depending on your taste: i always put oregano, cumin, pepper, some cinammon and of course paprika. to be more exact the little magic powder from spain: pimenton de la vera, which is awesome smoked paprika powder from spain that adds a nice smokey flavour to all kinds of dishes. try to find it - it's truly amazing, like vegan bacon-powder.
- oil for frying
- maybe some breadcrumbs (see step 3)

put the peanuts into a grinder or a food processor and grind them into a coarse, grainy mass. don't grind them to long or you will end up with peanut butter.

put the toast slices into a bowl and soak the in hot water. after 10 minutes, put the toast into a fine mesh sieve to drain the water. with your hands, push as much water out of the slices as you can, you will end up with a not very nice looking, lumpy mass. but that's ok.

cut the shallot into tiny cubes, and chop the parsley finely. put both into a bowl, add the ground peanuts. now put spices and herbs to the mixture - don't put salt yet, since the peanuts are quite salty themselves. thoroughly mix the contents of the bowl.

add the soaked toast, don't add all at once, start with 2/3 of the toast. knead everything together. you should end up with a lump of peanut-mass that holds together but isn't to wet or sticky. maybe you have to add more soaked toast, or, if you put a little to much toast (this happened to me) simply add a little breadcrumbs until the mass is right.

at this point, taste the mixture and see if it needs some extra salt.

now you have to form the balls, this works best by taking a small amount of the peanut mass and rolling it into a ball between the palms of your hands. don't make the balls to big, see picture for an idea of how big they should be.

continue until all the mass is finished up.

now it's time to think about what you want to eat the balls with:

i decided to go with rice, a rucola salad and a spice tomato and pepper sauce.

but you could also eat them with salad in a pita bread like falafel or just with fries and ketchup... endless possibilities!

put oil in a frying pan about 1,5 cm high and heat it up. when bubbles show on a wooden spoon when put in the oil it is hot enough.
only fry half of the balls at the same time. turn the balls around when they are golden brown on one side. the whole frying should take about 5-7 minutes.
when they are done, put them on a kitchen towel to soak of some of the oil.

once all the balls are fried enjoy them with your side dishes of choice!