Meat-less Balls

Great Christmas finger food, or for any occasion needing finger food really!

I modified the recipe for Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon (http://www.theppk.com/nomicon.html) for these.

INGREDIENTS: If you are referring to the Veganomicon recipe this is 4x that with a few modifications.

2 large tins of chickpeas, drained (4 cups)
8 TBS olive oil
2 cups vital wheat gluten (also called gluten flour -buy this at a produce deli or order in at health food store)
4 well crushed wheatbix (easier than breadcrumbs to have on hand)
1 cup vegetable stock
4 TBS soy sauce
4 TBS vegetarian Worcestershire sauce (no anchovies)
6 garlic cloves , pressed or grated
2 tps lemon zest
2 tps dried thyme
2 tps Hungarian paprika
1 tps dried rubbed sage
1/2 cup of plain flour for rolling balls in.
Canola oil for pan frying.

DIRECTIONS

Mash (or pulse in blender) the chickpeas and oil until no whole chickpeas remain.

Add wheatbix and pulse until well mixed - Unless you have a huge blender this will need to be done in 2-3 batches to get a proper mix.

Put all blended ingredients into large mixing bowl.

Add remaining ingredients (but not flour!) to chickpea mix and knead for 3-4 minutes until strings of gluten have formed.

Form little balls about the size of cherries or slightly larger and roll each ball lightly in the flour.

In a fry pan heat about 1cm of Canola oil and fry balls in batches.

Serve with toothpicks to pick up each meat-less ball and dip in mustard sauce, sweet chili sauce or tahini-miso sauce.