Seitan balls with tomato sauce, peas, almonds and raisins

Ingredients

For the seitan balls

130 g red lentils
300 ml filtered water
250 seitan sausage, minced
100 g plain seitan, minced
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons flax seeds
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs (from wholemeal bread)
a pinch of whole sea salt
a few fresh thyme sprigs, cleaned
2 teaspoons dried oregano
freshly ground white pepper, to taste
half a teaspoon paprika

For the sauce

1 garlic clove, peeled and cut into halves
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
a few pinches of powdered cinnamon
half a teaspoon paprika
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
chili powder, to taste
thyme, fresh and cleaned, to taste
dried or fresh oregano, to taste
250 g tomato purée
whole sea salt, just enough to taste
100 ml filtered water
100 g fresh peas
a large handful of raisins
a handful of peeled almonds, very coarsely chopped or crushed

Makes 15 balls.

Directions

Preheat the oven at 180° C. Cook the lentils in the water until they’re and tender (they should absorb all the water). Place them into the bowl of a food processor and process until creamy and smooth. Transfer the lentil mixture into a bowl, add the minced seitan sausage and plain seitan, garlic and olive oil and mix. Stir in the flax seeds, breadcrumbs, salt, thyme leaves, oregano, pepper and paprika and mix again. Take some mixture and shape into balls until there’s none left. Arrange balls on a lightly oiled baking pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until golden on all sides. remove from the oven and set aside.
To prepare the sauce, sauté the garlic in the olive oil in a large pan or wok. Add the cinnamon, paprika, pepper, chili, thyme and oregano and keep cooking, while stirring, for less than 1 minute. Stir in the tomato purée, season with the salt, then add the water and peas. Mix, turn the heat to low and cook for about 15 minutes and add the raisins. Keep cooking for another 15 minutes or until the peas are tender but the sauce not too thick. Stir in the almonds, transfer the seitan balls into the pan and make sure they’re all covered with the sauce. Remove from the heat, cover with a lid and set aside for about 15-20 minutes before serving.

Posted in: baking,beans and legumes,cooked,finger food,lunch-box,sauces,savoury,seitan,spring,vegetables

Tagged as: almonds, chili powder, cinnamon, extra virgin olive oil, flax seeds, lentils, oregano, paprika, peas, pepper, raisins, seitan, thyme, tomatoes