Last winter I went crazy with the vegan meatball recipes. I really like vegan meatballs and it seems you guys do too. They’re so versatile and cozy, and I think we all like a change from the usual ways of eating tofu and legumes. And yes, I’ll be continuing the veggie meatball tradition through this year. One meatball recipe is never enough and I’ve got a bunch of them up my sleeve, so I’m going to just go all out and make all the meatballs. Also, for just about every variation on the meatball theme I get at least one person asking how they’d adapt the recipe to work with another type of dish. If it’s an Asian meatball recipe someone will want to make it into Italian meatballs. If it’s Italian meatballs someone will ask how to make them Swedish. So I think I better just cover all the vegan meatball bases so that nobody is without a recipe. What I love about this particular meatball recipe is that it’s more than a meatball recipe. It’s a complete dinner, based around some meatballs. The stew is packed with tomatoes, veggies, dried apricot and spices. It could easily be eaten with chickpeas or greens, but I opted to include chickpea meatballs. And then everything gets eaten over couscous, so it ends up being a seriously hearty, comforting meal. One thing to watch out for: don’t leave the meatballs sitting in the stew! Veggie meatballs don’t have quite the same level of binding that non-veggie meatballs do, so while these are perfectly sturdy, they’ll quickly disintegrate if they stay immersed in liquid for a while. Throw the meatballs into the stew right before serving, and if you think you’ll have leftovers, store everything separate. Better yet, just bake up as many meatballs as you need, and store the leftover chickpea mix in the fridge or freezer.
