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Very Veggie Pesach 2018: Broccoli-Almond "Meatballs"

Next week, I hope to post a PDF that collects all of my veggie Passover recipes in one place for your convenience, but I wanted to add one more new recipe for this year to bring the total number of recipes in the PDF to 20!

I've seen a number of recipes for vegetarian "meatballs," but a lot of them don't really have a source of protein, always a key consideration for me when creating vegetarian meals for Passover. A few of them used ground almonds to provide the protein. I experimented with a few variations, and this is the one that worked. I served my first successful batch with marinara sauce, but I think during Passover I'm going to try it with the sweet and sour sauce I used to use back in the day when I used to eat real meatballs (it's similar to the sauce for my stuffed cabbage).

This recipe is gluten-free and non-gebrochts (contains no matzah products), but is not vegan (contains eggs and cheese). The cheese probably could be skipped, but I think the egg is necessary to hold the balls together.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium to large broccoli
  • 1 cup ground almonds (or other ground nuts)
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • handful of fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
  • handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
  • 2 eggs
  • tomato sauce to cover

Kashrut Notes

  • Nuts (including the ground almonds) are a Passover problem: they are normally packaged with preservatives that are suspended in corn oil.  Make sure the nuts you use are marked kosher for Passover.  These will normally be in the Passover section of stores with a better selection, often sold already ground. If you can't find them locally, online vendor Oh! Nuts has a nice selection.
  • Fresh, unprocessed supermarket produce is not a Passover problem. See Chabad's discussion. This covers the broccoli, garlic, basil and parsley.
  • Cheese requires kosher for Passover certification. Miller's brand makes a fine Parmesan that is widely available in kosher sections of stores (doesn't need to be refrigerated). 
  • Whole eggs in the shell are kosher for Passover without special certification, but must be purchased before the holiday if they are not marked as kosher for Passover.
  • Tomato sauce and paste requires Passover certification. Gefen makes some very good kosher-for-Passover pizza sauces, if you can find them. If not, Manischewitz or Rokeach tomato sauces in a can are fine and more widely available.

Preparation

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  2. Cut the stem off of the broccoli, leaving only the crown
  3. Steam the crown for about 10 minutes
  4. While the crown is steaming, mix together the almonds, Parmesan, garlic, basil and parsley in a large mixing bowl
  5. When the broccoli is finished steaming, drain it and chop it up as much as you can
  6. Mix the broccoli with the other ingredients
  7. Add the egg and mix well. You will probably need to do this with your hands to get the texture you want. You want it to be able to stick together well.
  8. With your hands, make balls of the mixture a little bigger than a golf ball. Squeeze the balls together firmly and place them on a baking sheet. You should get about 12 balls.
  9. Bake for about 30 minutes or until they are starting to brown. You may want to roll them over at about 20 minutes to make sure you get all sides cooked.
You can serve this with heated tomato sauce or other sauces appropriate for Passover.
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