Recipe for IKEA style Baked veggie balls – Grönsaksbullar – Swedish Vegan Meatballs. These vegan veggie balls are baked and served with a cashew sesame sauce. Healthy baked veggie balls recipe.
When we used to live in Hong Kong, one of my favorite places to simply roam around was IKEA. Me and my son would take an MTR to Causeway-bay and simply walk the streets. He was fascinated by all the electronic gadgets that one could find there. Not to mention the street stunts that happen all the time. It was oh! so crowded but was also a lot of fun. We would finish our trip in IKEA and indulge in cinnamon bun and these veggie balls. Later we would take a tram and sit on the top and just enjoy the slow ride till Fortress hill. Now thinking back, the sticky humid warm air was enjoyable too! We were basically jobless and just enjoying the time we had at hand. We would get down at Fortress Hill and wait for my husband to join us after work and we all would go back home together in the MTR. Those days are never coming back. But we made good memories. I made these baked IKEA style veggie balls and had a good time.
Here is the recipe. Honestly, this is not exactly like IKEA veggie balls but its close and tastes damn good. Do give it a try. Its healthy as its baked and not to mention its diabetes friendly – heart healthy recipe.
Soak the chickpea (garbanzo beans) for 4-5 hours. When ready to bake, start shredding the veggies.
Grind the chickpea to a coarse paste. Set aside. Do not add any water while grinding.
Heat oil in a pan and add in the chopped garlic, chopped onions and capsicum. Saute for a couple of minutes. Add in the corn, peas, chopped spinach, shredded cabbage and carrot.
Add in the red chilli flakes, Italian seasoning, turmeric, salt and black pepper. Add in the chickpea paste. Mix well to combine.
Cook for five minutes till the mixture is thick. Remove from heat and add in the coriander leaves. Mix well to combine.
Allow the mixture to cool a bit. Start making lime size balls.
Do not press to hard. Press gently to make a lime size ball.
Bake the balls in a parchment lined baking sheets at 400 degrees fahrenheit ( 200 degrees celcius ) for 45 minutes to an hour. The balls should be brown and dry and come off the pan easily.
Note: These can be made in an air-fryer too! Bake for 15-20 minutes if making in an air-fryer.
For the Sauce
Grind all the ingredients listed under “sauce” to a fine paste.
Serve the balls with sauce.
- ½ cup chickpeas - soaked for 4 hours
- ½ teaspoon vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 green or red bell pepper (capsicum), finely chopped
- ½ cup frozen green peas
- ½ cup frozen sweet corn kernels
- 2 cups chopped spinach
- 2 cups shredded cabbage
- ½ cup shredded carrot
- 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes
- 1 teaspoon italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper powder
- 3 sprigs coriander leaves (cilantro) , chopped
- ⅓ cup cashew-nut
- 3 tablespoon white sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup water
- Grind the chickpea to a coarse paste. Set aside
- Heat oil in a pan and add in the chopped garlic, chopped onions and capsicum. Saute for a couple of minutes. Add in the corn, peas, chopped spinach, shredded cabbage and carrot.
- Add in the red chilli flakes, Italian seasoning, turmeric, salt and black pepper. Add in the chickpea paste. Mix well to combine.
- Cook for five minutes till the mixture is thick. Remove from heat and add in the coriander leaves. Mix well to combine.
- Allow the mixture to cool a bit. Start making lime size balls.
- Bake the balls in a parchment lined baking sheets at 400 degrees fahrenheit ( 200 degrees celcius ) for 45 minutes to an hour. The balls should be brown and dry and come off the pan easily.
- Grind all the ingredients listed under “sauce” to a fine paste.
- Serve the veggie with sauce.
This looks awesome and likely a dish my vegan daughter will enjoy. I just have a query about the sauce. Where does it get the lovely orange colour from? Is there a missing ingredient like chilli powder and/or turmeric powder?
Its actually more kind of a creamy color like peanut butter. The soy sauce when ground with cashews and sesame gives it that color.
Delicious!! This is a keeper for sure. Here’s what I did differently:
– no corn
– add raisins (weird to think about but delicious)
– add nutritional yeast
– serve with ketchup instead of gravy – the American in me 😛
– added an Ethiopian spice called berbere (SO GOOD)
– added sundried tomatoes
– added mushrooms
– cooked for 25 mins
– took out oil and instead did lemon juice & coconut aminos
– cooked everything together
Really awesome dish – you can add whatever you have in the fridge. They didn’t quite taste like IKEA’s, but I didn’t follow your recipe either. If I was high-fat I probably would have added some tahini too and if I had it I would throw on some Lingonberry jam from IKEA.
It’s a new staple – thanks!
Thank you Leah!
Are the cashews raw or dry roasted?
Its raw. Roasted also will work just fine.
Do you have to use dried chickpeas or can you use canned chickpeas and not soak?
Canned will work fine.
must try this recipe,, I visit IKEA for this thing 🙂 Please post IKEA style chicken meatball recipe too.