Copycat IKEA Veggie Balls

By Emese Maczko on 02/17/2023 - May contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure.

If you don’t have an Ikea nearby, try our copycat Ikea veggie balls recipe. We added eight different vegetables, the same as in the original, with a tasty mix of spices and herbs to get the flavors just right.

White plate full of small colourful balls with fried potato sticks and a small white bowl with red sauce. A blue yellow flag is stuck in one ball

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Are you into veggie balls? Try our other recipes, such as our vegan eggplant meatballs, vegan chickpea meatballs, vegan mushroom meatballs, tofu meatballs, and TVP meatballs.

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What to expect?
Ingredients
Instructions
Serving ideas
Storing ideas
More veggie balls recipes
Copycat Ikea Veggie Balls

What to expect?

To say that Ikea’s Huvudroll vegetable balls are veggie-packed is an understatement. Ikea describes them as “Clearly visible chunks of chickpeas, green peas, carrots, bell peppers, corn, and kale in a beautiful array of colors.”

According to the packaging, the ingredients are chickpeas, green peas, carrots, red bell peppers, corn, kale, pea protein, onions, rapeseed oil, seasoning (salt, dried cane syrup, yeast extract, dried onion, spices [rubbed sage, black pepper, bay leaves], dried carrot, dried parsley, natural extracts of black pepper, turmeric, and pea starch.

What does our copycat version contain? We tried to make it as close to the original as possible and added as many ingredients as possible. However, we opted to make them oil-free, so no rapeseed or other oil of any kind. Not to mention, we have no idea where to buy pea protein or pea starch, but we can do that without them just fine. 🙂

The heart of all dishes is the spices and the herbs, aka the flavor. We tested several combinations of seasoning to make these veggie balls taste similar. In the end, we found that the mix of dried ground sage, dried ground parsley, turmeric, nutritional yeast, cane sugar, black pepper, and salt works the best.

Close-up of small brown balls with red, yellow, green pieces in them.

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Ingredients

Chickpeas – canned or precooked
Frozen spinach
Carrots
Red bell pepper – any other color will do
Sweet corn
Green peas – We recommend frozen since they are always sweeter and have a better texture. The canned ones are too soft.
Onion
Garlic
Oat flour – or all-purpose flour
Spices: sage, parsley, turmeric, nutritional yeast, cane sugar, black pepper, and salt

🛒 You can find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Instructions

Preparing the veggies

Peel the onion and cut them in quarters. Peel the garlic cloves.
Wash, peel carrots and cut them into 2-3 parts.
Wash and cut bell pepper into 2-3 parts.
Drain canned chickpeas.
Add all chopped vegetables to a food processor.

Food processor with roughly chopped carrots, onion, red pepper and garlic cloves

Pulse until they are finely chopped. No need to puree them entirely. You can see the reference in the picture below.

Food processor with red and orange veggie pieces.

Take a large frying pan and heat it to medium-high heat. Add a bit of olive oil and spread the chopped veggies evenly. Cook them for 10 minutes until they are tender and soft, but not mushy.

White frying pan with finely chopped carrots, onion, red pepper, and garlic pieces.

Now add frozen but thawed or fresh spinach, the dried sage, and the dried parsley.

White frying pan with finely chopped carrots, onion, red pepper, and garlic pieces topped with spinach pieces and spices.

Mix and cook for 1-2 minutes. Set aside to chill them.

White frying pan with finely chopped spinach, carrots, onion, red pepper, and garlic pieces.

Making veggie balls

Depending on the size of your food processor, you should work in batches. Add the canned chickpeas (without the water) and the pre-cooked vegetable mixture (chilled, not too hot).

Food processor with chickpeas, finely chopped spinach, carrots, onion, red pepper, and garlic pieces.

Pulse until they are combined. The chickpeas should be cut up in small chunks (close to puree, but with “clearly visible chunks of chickpeas,” as Ikea would say).

Food processor with red, yellow, and green crumbly puree.

Take a large bowl and add the veggie ball dough mix from the food processor, the cooked green peas, the canned sweet corn, and all the remaining seasoning (turmeric, cane sugar, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper).

Glass bowl with corn, green peas, spices and crumbly veggie puree

Mix well with a spatula or spoon until combined. Depending on the moisture you have from the veggies, you need to add oat flour. Start with ½ cup and add more to get the consistency shown in the below picture. The mixture should be soft if you press it, but firm enough that you can make balls easily.

A glass bowl with red, yellow, green veggie ball dough forming a large ball.

Let’s bake!

To make IKEA-sized small veggie balls, I used the Tablespoon measure spoon. I scooped up a ball like ice cream and then finished forming it with my hands. Look how lovely, vibrant yellow and perfectly rounded are they while standing in well-behaved order on the parchment paper (see below picture). They are the size of a golf ball.

Small brown balls with yellow, red, green pieces on a white parchment paper standing scattered.

Take your frying pan, add a bit of oil and fry them on medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side. If it is a truly non-stick like, then you wouldn’t need to add any oil and the vegetable balls will still get a crispy brownish crust. However, we prefer to keep it oil-free or at least minimal oil. Therefore, we recommend baking them in the oven on a parchment paper or baking sheet.

Serving ideas

When your veggie balls are ready, you can serve them in many ways. In the Ikea Food Court, they also offer it in different variations. Not like the iconic Ikea Swedish meatballs, which always goes together with lingonberry sauce and mashed potato.

Our favorite way to enjoy them is with potatoes: either French fries, or vegan mashed potatoes, or roasted potatoes.
You can also choose other side dishes like fried rice, or any combination of veggies like roasted asparagus, sauteed carrots, sauteed mushrooms.
Drop them into our homemade vegan marinara sauce and serve it with spaghetti.
Top them with lots of grated cheese to turn them into a pasta bake or casserole.
Put them on a stick or skewer, add a dip, and serve them as appetizers. They go great with tomato-based sauces like chunky salsa sauce, or sweet dips like spicy sweet chili sauce, or smoky vegan BBQ sauce.

A fork is pierced through a brown veggie ball. In the background fried potato chips on a white plate and a small white bowl with red sauce. A blue yellow flag is in the background.

Storing ideas

You can keep it in the refrigerator for 4-5 days tops without any problem. We recommend storing the Ikea veggie balls alone and not dipped in any sauce.

We recommend freezing after frying or baking, not as an uncooked mixture. They can moisten up after thawing. If you are ready to enjoy them, pop them back in the oven or warm them up in a frying pan to get the crispy crust back.