Are you looking for the best vegan meatballs with a real meaty texture? This recipe will deliver. They are juicy, full of flavors, not mushy at all, and will not fall apart! Make these delicious tvp meatballs today and serve them with a rich marinara sauce and spaghetti.
If you haven’t heard about TVP (textured vegetable protein) before, you would be amazed by this ingredient. It is the best ground beef substitute ever. We use it to make the meatiest burger, taco meat, lasagna, or moussaka.
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What to expect from this recipe?
Are you are looking for a vegan alternative to meatballs that
- are really close both in taste and in texture to ground beef (minus the fatty, greasy part of course – who would want to mimic that)?
- are juicy and not dry?
- will not fall apart during cooking?
- are flavorful and delicious?
- are easy to make?
If you are looking for a real beef-like vegan mince substitute, we recommend choosing TVP*. This is the closest you can get ever get.
Ingredients
The main ingredient is TVP* (textured vegetable protein), but what is TVP? It is actually only defatted soy flour, no other ingredients. They add water to it to make a paste, then it is pressure cooked in a sense, then dehydrated. The texture is spot on. This is the best plant-based alternative by far.
So what else do you need?
- Onion
- Garlic
- Italian seasoning – smoked sweet paprika, Worcestershire sauce (vegan and gluten-free), dried oregano, dried basil, ground cumin, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and black pepper
- Rice flour – hence it is gluten-free as well.
- Tapioca starch – or any other substitute
Why don’t we add breadcrumbs?
When you were making classic minced beef-based meatballs, the recipe usually called for breadcrumbs or stale bread soaked in milk.
The reason was to add moisture to the otherwise dry and heavy meat as well as to add some texture and prevent the meatballs to shrink. Why don’t you need breadcrumbs now? TVP will not shrink and it is moist enough to keep the meatballs juicy and in shape. I ensure you they will not fall apart and will not turn mushy either.
We tried using breadcrumbs with TVP and it became really dry to our taste. We opted for a lighter binding agent (rice flour and tapioca starch) that has a neutral taste and will keep the focus on the seasoning. In addition, there are so many different GF breadcrumbs (with different GF flours) and they may not behave the same.
How to make vegan meatballs with TVP?
Turning TVP into ground meat
- Boil water in a kettle and add veggie stock or bring veggie broth to boil.
- Take a heat-resisting bowl or saucepan and soak TVP* in the hot veggie broth for 10 minutes.
- When the time is up, squeeze the liquid out. As a result, you need to have moist, soft “minced meat”. (See below picture for reference.)
Pre-cooking onion and garlic
- While you wait for the TVP to get ready, peel and chop onion and garlic.
- Take a frying pan or skillet and pre-heat to medium heat.
- Add a dash of olive oil and the finely chopped onion and garlic.
- Cook onion and garlic until tender, but opaque, yellow and not caramelized.
Mixing and forming the balls
- Take a large mixing bowl and add TVP* (soaked and squeezed), pre-cooked onion and garlic, and the Italian seasoning (smoked sweet paprika, Worcestershire sauce, dried oregano, dried basil, ground cumin, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and black pepper). Mix everything well with a spatula or with your hands. It will not come together at this point, but don’t worry.
- Unlike when someone is making a meat-based meatball, they can’t really check the seasoning of the raw meat, but since there are all plant-based ingredients, you can taste it without any problems and adjust seasoning if you need to.
- When you are satisfied with the result, you can add the rice flour and the tapioca starch and mix well. It will also seem to not coming together at this point, but don’t worry. (See below picture for easy reference.)
- Now it is time to form the tvp meatballs. If you form small balls with your hands squeezing rather than rolling, they will come together and will stay together. (See below picture for easy reference)
- The mixture is supposed to be soft and on the crumblier side, so it is not too dry and dense. The high heat of the oven will activate the starch and the balls will be perfect.
Baking or frying
- Take a large baking tray or a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake the vegan meatballs in a pre-heated oven of 390 Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) for 15-20 minutes.
- Alternatively, you can shallow fry them in a cast-iron skillet (we use the one from UnoCasa*) or frying pan for 10-15 minutes. Flip them multiple times so you get a crispy crust all around them.
Top tips to make perfect TVP meatballs
- Why do you need veggie broth? – You can soak TVP in hot water as well, but veggie broth will provide additional flavors.
- Chop finely – Chop onion and garlic finely so they will mix well with the soaked TVP.
- Don’t recommend simmering the meatballs in a sauce – You can add these tvp meatballs to a sauce and they will NOT fall apart. However, we recommend baking them in advance before doing that. They need that crispy outer crust first.
- No special equipment – No need to pulse it on a food processor or stir any mixture for a long time. It is super easy to make, you’ll see.
FAQs and substitutions
Can you turn them into burger patties?
Yes, you can. Although we recommend trying this specific Vegan TVP Burger recipe as we added other ingredients to create the best meatless burger texture and taste.
Can you use fresh herbs?
You can absolutely use fresh basil and oregano instead. You can also add fresh parsley, just keep the total amount of green herbs as per the recipe card.
Can you use other flour and starch?
- If you don’t need to eat gluten-free, you can use all purpose flour instead of rice flour and tapioca starch.
- If you don’t want to use other gluten-free flour, you can try buckwheat or maybe millet flour. I find oat flour will alter the taste too much in this case.
- I also tested this recipe with cornstarch instead of tapioca starch. For more options, check out our post about tapioca flour substitutes where I explain when and how each substitute should be used.
Is Worcestershire sauce gluten-free and vegan?
Yes, there are some brands that are both gluten-free and vegan. Check out our post titled “Is Worcestershire sauce gluten-free?” for the list of brands.
If you don’t have Worcestershire sauce, you can use soy sauce as an alternative. Please note that soy sauce is also not gluten-free by default, we listed here 5 gluten-free soy sauce substitutes out of which we usually use tamari*.
What to do with leftovers?
They keep well in the fridge for 3-4 days in an airtight container. We recommend storing sauces separately, as the meatballs may soak up the sauce and can fall apart on day 3 or 4.
These vegan tvp meatballs are also freezer-friendly. Thaw them if you need them and pop them back under the broiler to get their crispy crust back.
What to serve with them?
When your “meatballs” are ready, you can serve them in many different ways.
- Drop them into our homemade marinara sauce and make spaghetti with “meatballs”. You can even pop it in the oven top it with lots of grated cheese to turn it into a pasta bake or casserole. (Picture below.)
- Make this amazing caramelized carrot pasta sauce or this creamy cashew alfredo that complements these meatballs perfectly. Or try to add it to your vegan mac and cheese.
- You can make a complete meal serving them with vegan mashed potatoes to the side, or fried rice or 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 or vegan nacho cheese sauce) and serve them as appetizers.
- Take a vegan and gluten-free biscuit and make meatball biscuit sliders.
- Stuff pita bread with veggies and these veggie balls top with your favorite vegan yogurt dip.
- Add them to your vegan shakshuka to make it more filling.
This TVP Meatballs recipe is vegan (so meat-free, egg-free and dairy-free) and vegetarian. It is gluten-free if you use gluten-free Worcestershire sauce.
⇒ GET OUR FREE 7-DAY VEGAN MEAL PLAN NOW! OR CHECK OUT ALL OF THE VEGAN MEAL PLAN RECIPES HERE! ⇐
More tvp recipes
Start with checking out these must-try vegan tvp recipes or choose from the below list:
- Vegan TVP Burger
- Vegan TVP Taco Meat
- Vegan Taco Soup with TVP
- Mexican Vegan Rice Casserole
- Vegan Moussaka
More meatless meatballs recipes
Easy Meaty Vegan TVP Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1+½ cup TVP (Soy) -> What is TVP?
- 4 cup Veggie broth
- 1 Onion (small)
- 3-4 cloves Garlic
- 2 tsp Worchestershire sauce -> gluten-free and vegan brands
- 1 tsp Balsamic vinegar -> gluten-free vinegar brands
- 3 Tbsp Olive oil
- 2 tsp Sweet smoked paprika powder
- 1+½ tsp Basil dried
- 1+½ tsp Oregano dried
- 1 tsp Ground cumin seeds
- 2 tsp Salt
- ⅛ tsp Black pepper
- ½ cup White rice flour
- 4 Tbsp Tapioca starch -> tapioca starch substitutes
Choose your sauce
Instructions
Turning TVP into minced meat
- Boil water in a kettle and add veggie stock or bring veggie broth to boil. Take a heat-resisting bowl or saucepan and soak TVP in the hot veggie broth for 10 minutes.
- When the time is up, squeeze the liquid out with your hands. As a result, you need to have moist, soft “minced meat”.
Pre-cooking onion and garlic
- While you wait for the TVP to get ready, peel and chop onion and garlic. Take a frying pan or skillet and pre-heat to medium heat. Add a dash of olive oil (1 Tbsp) and the finely chopped onion and garlic. Cook onion and garlic until tender, but opaque, yellow and not caramelized.
Mixing and forming meatballs
- Take a large mixing bowl and add TVP (soaked and squeezed), pre-cooked onion and garlic, and the seasoning (smoked sweet paprika, Worcestershire sauce, dried oregano, dried basil, ground cumin, balsamic vinegar, olive oil (2 Tbsp), salt and black pepper). Mix everything well with a spatula or with your hands.
- Taste it and adjust seasoning if needed. Then add the rice flour and the tapioca starch and mix well. It will not come together at this point, but don’t worry.
- If you form small balls with your hands squeezing rather than rolled, they will come together and will stay together after baking. The mixture supposed to be soft and on the crumblier side, so it is not too dry and dense after baking. The high heat of the oven will activate the starch and the balls will be perfect.
Baking or frying
- Bake the vegan meatballs in a pre-heated oven of 390 Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) for 15-20 minutes.
- If you prefer on stove top, take a frying pan and heat it on medium heat. Add a bit of coconut oil or olive oil if you don't have a non-stick pan. Fry them for a couple of minutes each side to give them a nice brown color.
- Serving suggestions above the recipe card!!!
Notes
Top tips to make perfect tvp meatballs
- Why do you need veggie broth? – You can soak TVP in hot water as well, but veggie broth will provide additional flavors.
- Chop finely – Chop onion and garlic finely so they will mix well with the soaked TVP.
- Don’t recommend simmering the meatballs in a sauce – You can add these tvp meatballs to a sauce and they will NOT fall apart. However, we recommend baking them in advance before doing that. They need that crispy outer crust first.
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