Buffalo Quinoa Cauliflower Vegan Meatballs
These Buffalo Quinoa Cauliflower Vegan Meatballs will be a HIT at your next party! They are incredibly easy to make, coated in buffalo sauce and so meal preppable!
Imagine this: your new favourite vegan meatballs recipe, with the best texture, slathered in a sweet and spicy buffalo sauce. That’s exactly what you’re going to get with this recipe. Now I’ve made meatballs before when I made my beet meatballs, and after that I knew I wanted to delve deeper into the meatless meatballs world. That’s one of the things I love about vegetarian and vegan food. You can use such a range of ingredients to recreate dishes that you can make something that is completely in your taste. There are no rules and don’t ever let anyone try and tell you that there are!
So here’s the assembly of these vegan meatballs. I knew using cauliflower and quinoa together to make these vegan meatballs would make the perfect texture combination after making these Quinoa Cauliflower Burgers. The roasted cauliflower alone is magnificent just like in my sticky sesame cauliflower wings which mimic chicken, and quinoa adds a lovely texture while also adding lots of fibre and added protein. After that it was really about binding and seasonings.
Buffalo Quinoa Cauliflower Vegan Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1 cup roasted cauliflower, instructions below
- 1 cup cooked quinoa, 137g
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 2 Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacers OR flax eggs, if flax eggs, less one tablespoon of liquid per flax egg
- ½ cup red onion, finely diced, 114g
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ tablespoons coconut oil
Buffalo Sauce
- 1/2 cup vinegar based hot sauce, such as Frank's hot sauce
- 1 tablespoon vegan butter
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2-3 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions
Buffalo Sauce
- Mix all the ingredients together other medium low heat in a sauce pan until completely incorporated. Set aside until ready to use.
Vegan Meatballs
- Preheat oven to 450°F/230°C. Cut the cauliflower's stem off, and cut into even-sized florets. Drizzle the cauliflower with maybe a teaspoon of oil. Roast the cauliflower for 15-20 minutes in the oven. Remove and allow to cool for a few minutes.
- In a food processor, add the cauliflower and pulse it until it's completely riced. Remove from the food processor. You only need 1 cup of this for this recipe. You can use the rest for a cauliflower rice recipe
- Add the 1 cup of riced cauliflower and all the other meatball ingredients EXCEPT the coconut oil. You can pulse them or mix them together until they form into a tight ball, combining everything. You want to ensure they are so mixed together that you're not seeing individual cauliflower or quinoa florets, it's all one big mixture. That's how you'll ensure the meatballs will hold together!
- Heat the coconut oil in a pan over medium high heat. While it's heating, use a tablespoon measurer to form one raw meatball and shape into a ball with your fingers. You can place them on a plate while the oil heats.
- Add one meatball to test the oil. Cook on one side for about 1-2 minutes, turning on all sides onto fully cooked inside and out, about 4 minutes. You can add as many meatballs as can fit in the pan without overcrowding it, cooking them all for about 4-5 minutes turning on each side, to cook them through.
- Lower/turn the heat off. When the heat has cooled down, add in the sauce. You want to do this because if the pan is too hot, the sauce will spew and the heat can be dangerous while so hot.
- Coat the meatballs in the sauce and then remove the pan from the stove. Serve the meatballs and enjoy!! You can enjoy these vegan meatballs alone, in a nice hoagie or with cauliflower rice or quinoa on the side, you know, for a double down. You could even have them on toothpicks as an appetiser at your Super Bowl party!
Notes
Disclaimer: Although jessicainthekitchen.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, kindly note that these are only estimates. Nutritional information may be affected based on the product type, the brand that was purchased, and in other unforeseeable ways. Jessicainthekitchen.com will not be held liable for any loss or damage resulting for your reliance on nutritional information. If you need to follow a specific caloric regimen, please consult your doctor first.
I am absolutely drooling over this recipe and these photos! These sound and look absolutely delicious!
Hi! I wonder if you can bake the meatballs instead of cooking them in oil on the stove top?
Hi Carla,
I haven’t tried it but you should be able to! The texture wouldn’t be the same though. I haven’t tested it so I can’t give you a specific time, but I would bake them at 450 until cooked, maybe 15-20 minutes? I can’t give a guarantee to that but that’s what I’m thinking. Let me know if you try that please!
Hi!
Is it possible to freeze a batch of these for quick dinner during weeknights?
Hi Tatiana,
I haven’t tried that but yes that should be possible! I would cook them without the sauce, then freeze them, then reheat them in the pan and then put them in the sauce. I hope that helps!!
Hi Estelle it should only be 1 1/2 tablespoons of coconut oil, I removed it to avoid confusion. I hope you enjoy the recipe!!!
Delish!
Hello Jessica , Which franks hot sauce should we use?
Hi Jay we use the original cayenne pepper hot sauce hope this helps!
Could you use these meatballs for a spaghetti and meatballs dish?
Hi Jodi,
Definitely!!! The meatballs take on any flavour of the sauce!
I just made these tonight, they are super yummy, but the inside is quite mushy. Is that normal? IS there someway to make them so the inside isn’t so squishy?
Hey Bonnie!
I’m glad you liked the taste! Let me see if I can help – what egg replacer did you use? Also, did you change/modify any of the ingredients? It definitely should *not* be mushy on the inside at all! The only liquid that could be in there is from the cauliflower – did you roast it per directions? Thanks Bonnie! Answering these will help me help you for sure!
– Jessica
Hi. I like the sound of these. I’m not vegan. Can I use chicken eggs? One or two?
Hi Jane,
I haven’t tested them with them, but I think they would work!
I love your recipes and your style.Keep it up!
Thanks so much Joyce! We will!