Vegan Mushroom Meatballs

These aromatic, rich, and flavorful mushroom meatballs are easy to prepare. The spices will highlight the mushrooms, and the cooked rice will keep them moist. You will create a truly unforgettable vegan or vegetarian meal, or wonder why you are not making these more often.

If you love mushroom dishes, let me show you our favorite ones (apart from this recipe). Have you seen our delicious vegan butternut squash wellington with a rosemary mushroom walnut filling? If you need something quick and easy, try this chickpea mushroom curry or this vegan portobello mushroom fajitas.

What to expect

The star of this vegan meatballs recipe is mushroom, of course. We used button mushrooms as they are the most common type, but any kind can be a good candidate. Start with whatever you have on hand or find in your local store. As the different mushrooms have subtle differences in taste and texture, you can mix and match different kinds, like oyster mushrooms or shiitake, so that the flavors can bring your meatballs up a notch.

If you make our vegan mushroom meatballs recipe, this is what you will get:

• crispy on the outside but moist on the inside
• aromatic and flavorful with a combination of green herbs and other spices
• easy to prepare with only a handful of simple ingredients
• perfect for batch cooking and freezer-friendly

We also tested this recipe with oats, but as they have such a strong taste, they overpowered the mushrooms. So we opted for white cooked rice (same as in our chickpea meatballs recipe) as they have the perfect texture to make the meatballs soft on the inside without compromising on crispiness. Rice also manages to complement rather than overpower the mushroom and the seasoning. Oats work great in our vegan eggplant meatballs recipe.

Ingredients

Of course, the mushroom is the main ingredient, but not the most important one. It is necessary to have the right combination of flavors and different textures to bring the best out of them. Mushrooms tend to be spongy with a pretty neutral taste. They are perfect for meatless dishes as they mimic the meaty texture and absorb the seasoning entirely. So what is in our vegan mushroom meatballs recipe that makes them so delicious?

• Button mushrooms → Any fresh mushrooms can be a good candidate. Start with whatever you have on hand or find in your local store. You will probably be able to buy button mushrooms since they are the most common type. You can also find them under cremini, crimini, small portobello, baby bella, Italian brown, champignon, or chestnut mushroom. They are practically the same both in taste and texture.
• Chopped walnuts or walnut meal → You can use pecans instead.
• Cooked rice or leftover rice
• Onion
• Garlic
• Starch → Only a bit to ensure the balls have a crispy crust after baking and hold together firmly.
• Basil → We used ground, dried basil.
• Oregano → We used ground, dried oregano.
• Cumin
• Soy sauce → To make it gluten-free, use tamari or other gluten-free soy sauce substitutes. You can also use balsamic vinegar or Worcestershire sauce for an extra umami flavor if you don’t have soy sauce. Yes, there are vegan gluten-free Worcestershire sauce brands.
• Nutritional yeast
• Smoked sweet paprika powder
• Salt and black pepper

🛒 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 ingredients

• Peel and finely chop the onion and the garlic.
• Chop walnuts into a coarse meal texture using a food processor, or use ground walnut.
• Cook the rice according to package instructions, or use leftover rice.
• Gently clean the mushrooms with a damp paper towel or clean kitchen cloth. We rarely peel them, but sometimes cut off the stem if they feel too dry or stiff. Then slice them. 

Pan-frying mushrooms

1. Cook onion and garlic in olive oil until soft and glassy.
2. When they are ready, add sliced mushrooms. Stir.
3. Add the seasoning: salt, black pepper, ground basil, ground oregano, and cumin.
4. Stir and cook mushrooms over medium-high heat until they are soft and have shrunk. Cook off any liquid.

Forming the mushroom balls

5. Take a food processor and add the sautéed mushrooms (don’t add them too hot since not all equipment can handle high heat), walnut meal, nutritional yeast, smoked sweet paprika powder, soy sauce, and cooked, drained rice. 
6. Pulse it a couple of times, but don’t over-blend them. You still need to be able to see all ingredients in chunks. 
7. Transfer it to a large bowl and check whether you can form a ball from the mushroom mixture. It should be soft and may stick to your hands a bit. However, if it is too sticky, add the starch. 
8. When the mixture consistency is perfect, take 2 Tablespoons from it and form the balls. 

Baking or pan-frying

• Bake your vegan meatballs with mushrooms in a preheated oven of 350 Fahrenheit (ca. 177 °C) for 20-30 minutes, or until they have a crispy crust. We prefer using a baking tray with parchment paper over a silicone baking sheet. See the below photo showing the mushroom balls right out of the oven. They look perfect, right?
• Alternatively, you can shallow fry them in a large skillet over medium heat using heat-resistant oil, like sunflower or coconut oil. Fry them on all sides by frequently turning them. If you don’t overcrowd the pan, it should take approximately 10 minutes to prepare the first batch.

Top tips

• Immersion blender or food processor –  It can be tricky to get the right consistency with an immersion or hand blender, especially if you have whole walnuts. 
• Size matters – Baking time depends on the size of the meatballs you make. The smaller they are, the shorted time they will need.
• Balls or patties – You can make burger-shaped mushroom patties; the mixture will hold them together.

FAQs and substitutions

How do you store them?

You can keep it in the fridge for 4-5 days without any problem. We recommend storing the mushroom meatballs alone and with any sauce.

Can you freeze them?

We recommend freezing after frying/baking, not as an uncooked mixture, as it may become too moist when thawed. Freeze the balls separately per serving.

How to thaw them?

Take as many mushroom meatballs as you need and pop them back in the oven. Alternatively, warm them up in a frying pan to return their crispy crust. If you use a microwave, the balls will not be crispy.

What to serve with them?

In the photos, we served them with this fantastic caramelized carrot pasta sauce that perfectly complements these vegan gluten-free mushroom balls. If you need ideas, let us give you some recipes for what to do with them.

• Drop them into our homemade marinara sauce and make spaghetti with “meatballs”. You can even pop it in the oven and top it with lots of grated parmesan cheese to turn it into a pasta bake or casserole. 
• You can make a complete meal serving them with vegan mashed potatoes to the side, your favorite fried rice, or any combination of roasted veggies (asparagus, mushroom, root veggies).
• Make a vegan meatball sandwich with marinara sauce. 
• Put them on a stick or skewer, add a dip (like vegan BBQ sauce) and serve them as appetizers. 
• Take a vegan and gluten-free biscuit and make meatball biscuit sliders. 
• Drop them in your vegan mac and cheese. So yummy!
• Replace falafel with these mushroom balls to make a delicious sandwich with maple tahini dressing.
• Add them to your vegan shakshuka to make it more filling. 
• Can it be a delicious pizza topping? Why not? 

Let us know in the comments what is your favorite combination!

Allergen info

This Mushroom Meatballs recipe is meatless, egg-free, and dairy-free.

• Vegan – All suggested ingredients are supposed to be vegan.
• Nut-free – That is a tricky question, as walnuts give a depth of flavor that accompanies mushrooms perfectly. We recommend sunflower seeds or pepitas (pumpkin seeds) to make it nut-free. We have yet to test this recipe other than with walnuts and pecans, but let us know in the comments if you try.
• WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) – Precook the veggies in vegetable broth or water instead of oil to make this recipe compliant.
• Gluten-free – Use a gluten-free soy sauce substitute (we recommend tamari), but all other ingredients are supposed to be gluten-free. Always check the packaging for cross-contamination info.
• Soy-free – Coconut aminos are the perfect soy-free soy sauce substitute. All other ingredients are supposed to be soy-free.

More vegan mushroom recipes

You can browse through our vegan dinner recipes or our quick 15-min vegan meals collection or check out

UPDATED: This recipe was originally posted in Dec 2020. More tips, info, and details were added, and it was republished in Nov 2022.