Tempeh meatballs are easy 1-bowl vegan meatballs with delicious Greek flavors. They are delicious gluten-free vegan meatballs to make Greek meatballs gyros or salads.
Tempeh what is it?
Tempeh is made of fermented soy beans using a fungus called tempeh starter. It has a dense and firm texture compared to tofu. The fermentation process binds the soybeans into a hard block and adds up protein, fiber and vitamins.
It has a strong earthy flavor, perfect to create vegan meat-substitute recipes with flavors and texture. Also, most tempeh you can buy are fortified in vitamins B12. It’s a great nutritional addition for people on a vegan diet as vitamin B12 is quite rare in plant-based foods.
Greek tempeh meatballs
Tempeh meatballs can be flavored with any combo of spices. However, if you’ve been reading me for a while, you know I am French and I have a passion for Mediterranean flavors. Greek tempeh meatballs are the most flavorsome made with only 10 simple ingredients:
- Tempeh – I used vitamins B12-fortified organic tempeh
- Red onion
- Garlic
- Parsley – I used italian flat parsley
- Mint leaves
- Dried oregano
- Salt
- Tomato Paste
- Vegetable stock
- Tabasco or chipotle sauce – this is optional but great to spice up the meatballs
Tempeh meatball gyros
Greek tempeh meatballs are delicious served into a Lebanese flatbread along with diced cucumber, tomatoes, black olives and red onions. I recommend to generously cover the bread and meatballs with mint coconut yogurt sauce.
Tempeh meatballs salad
Tempeh meatball salad makes a delicious vegan low-carb lunch. Simply combine together the vegetables below into a plate or glass container:
- Diced cucumber
- Tomatoes – cut in quarters
- Black olives
- Red onions slices
- Lemon juice – simply squeeze fresh lemon juice on your salad and olive oil if desired
- Hot tempeh meatballs – add the hot meatballs on top of the salad with mint coconut yogurt sauce
If you intend to take away the salad, store the meatballs separately from the salad. Rewarm the meatballs in a warm saucepan or sandwich press before serving on top of the salad.
Which sauce for Greek Tempeh meatballs?
There are plenty of delicious sauces to drizzle or dip your meatballs. The best choices are :
- Mint coconut yogurt sauce – this tastes like Greek tzatziki sauce, it’s thick and creamy with a delicious mint, lemon and garlic flavor. It’s ready in 2 minutes, see recipe below
- Vegan aioli or mayonnaise
- BBQ sauce
- Tomato sauce
- Vegan cheese sauce – my vegan nacho cheese sauce pairs really with these meatballs too !
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Other recipes you might like
If you liked these meatballs, try the following recipes:
Your friend, Carine
Tempeh meatballs
Ingredients
- 9 oz Tempeh – cubed
- 3 tablespoons Red onion – finely chopped
- 2 Garlic – crushed
- 1/4 cup Parsley – fresh, finely chopped
- 6 Mint leaves – , finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon Dried oregano
- 3/4 teaspoon Salt
- 2 tablespoon Olive oil – or any vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup Vegetable stock
- 1 tablespoon Tomato paste
- 1/4 cup Chickpea flour – – see note for options
Mint Coconut yogurt sauce
- 1/2 cup Coconut yogurt
- 2 tablespoon Lemon juice
- 3 Garlic – crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 10 Mint leaves – finely chopped
To fry the meatballs
- 4 tablespoons Grapeseed oil – or high smoke point oil of your choice
Instructions
- In a food processor using the S blade attachment, add all the meatballs ingredients except the chickpea flour!
- Blend on high speed for 20 seconds or until the tempeh starts to turn into a paste but you still have bites or food.
- Stop the food processor, scrape down the side of the bowl and add the chickpea flour. Blend on high speed for 10-15 seconds to combine. Don't overdo it, this will keep some tiny bites of food and give more texture to the meatballs. Don't worry, the recipe will work too if you blend for too long, you will simply lose some texture. Otherwise, you can also transfer the meatball batter in a mixing bowl and stir in the chickpea flour with a spoon.
- Take one tablespoon of meatball batter and roll between your hands. Place the balls onto a plate and repeat until you form 18 meatballs.
- Warm 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil on a frying pan. When the oil is very hot, add the meatballs and fry evenly, using a tong to rotate the meatballs into the oil and fry on all the sides.
- Add more oil as they fry, up to 4 tablespoons in total. It takes between 8-12 minutes to perfectly fry the meatballs.
- Serve immediately on top of a salad of your choice or in a Lebanese flatbread with diced cucumber, quarters of tomatoes, black olives, red onions slices and a generous amount of mint coconut yogurt sauce.
Storage and freezing
- Store the meatball, cooked or uncooked, in the fridge for up to 3 days. Make sure you store them in an airtight container to avoid them to dry. If uncooked, fry as usual. If already cook, rewarm in a hot oven for 5-10 minutes at 150°C (300°F).
- Freeze the meatballs in an airtight container. Place a piece of parchment paper at the bottom of the container to avoid the meatballs to stick to the storage box. Leave half thumb space between each meatballs. Defrost 3-4 hours before frying or baking.
Coconut yogurt sauce
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk all the ingredients together until it forms a creamy sauce.
- Store in the fridge for at least 1 hour, to enhance the flavor or serve immediately if desired.
- Sore up to 1 week in the fridge in a glass mason jar.
Keep warm
- If you fry the meatballs ahead, you can keep them warm in the oven. Place the fried meatballs on a baking tray. Place in hot oven around 120°C (250°F) for a maximum of 30 minutes to avoid them to dry out.
Notes
Baking your meatballs
- The meatballs can be baked at 200°C (400°F), the texture will be softer and less juicy. Place the meatballs on a baking tray covered with parchment paper. Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the meatballs halfway to evenly bake them.
Flour options
- You can replace chickpea flour by the same amount of all purpose flour or oat flour. The outside of the meatballs is slightly crumbly if you use oat flour.
- Keto options, replace by 1/2 cup of almond flour
Absolutely delicious! I used extra firm tofu since I didn’t have tempeh, and I baked them in the oven but they have an amazing texture and flavour!
For sure one of my new favourites 🙂
Thank you so much for the feedback! I did not try firm tofu yet in this recipe but so glad to know it works well too ! Enjoy the plant based recipes around here. XOXO Carine.
This make me hungy.
Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Awesome! That’s the idea 🙂 Enjoy the recipe. XOXO Carine.
This vegan recipe is very tasty but nor something to put in a red sauce. There is no binding agent to hold the veggie balls together! One might want to add vegan egg substitutes like flaxseed or chia seeds. 3 Tbs, ground seeds + 3 Tbs. water. Stir and allow the mixture to sit for about 10 minutes
Thanks for trying my recipe. As I mention in the recipe those meatballs are perfect for gyros sandwich or salad toppings not to bring into sauce. Enjoy the recipes on the blog XOXO Carine