Eggplant Meatballs in Marinara Sauce is actually a meat-free recipe that is vegetarian and gluten-free. This Eggplant Meatball recipe is made with roasted eggplant, creamy salty parmesan cheese, Italian breadcrumbs and fresh basil and parsley packed into a balls, and then lightly fried, served topped with marinara sauce.
Oh lordy, look at me posting a fry em’ up recipe. Yep fried food, but, but, but wait just a minute before you leave. Let me explain… this is eggplant meatballs! Fried eggplant meatballs. Is your mouth-watering? Well, it should be! These meatballs are… epic! Yes, epic!
I could eat them every day! The hubby could eat them every day, but he wouldn’t because he won’t eat leftovers, but that is a story for a different day.
After spending last weekend in Cleveland and enjoying my mother-n-laws Italian cooking, I came home with a hankering for cooking up my own classic homemade Italian recipes. Ever since our trip to Italy I always associate eggplant with Italy. The flavor combinations in the dish are all Italy.
Just one roasted medium eggplant will give you fourteen 2″ meatballs, and the perfect family dinner for everyone. Served with a big leafy green salad and you have a great vegetarian, dinner and no one will feel deprived without protein.
I hope you give this recipe a try and if you do please share it with me! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #ahealthylifeforme.
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- 1 large purple eggplant {1 lb}
- 2 large eggs, whisked
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 3 cups of gluten free Italian breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/2 cup gluten free all purpose flour
- 3 cups vegetable oil {for frying}
- 1-28 ounce can of marinara sauce
- Heat oven to 350°.
- Prick eggplant with fork and place on small baking sheet and bake for one hour.
- Remove from oven, let cool, cut eggplant in half lengthwise and using a spoon scoop out inside flesh, and mash. Discard skin.
- Meanwhile add marinara to a pan and heat over low heat until simmering.
- In a large bowl add eggs, whisk. Add garlic, salt, parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, herbs, and mashed eggplant.
- Using your hands press mixture together into 2”-2 1/2” size balls. Packing the mixture tightly together.
- Place vegetable oil in a medium frying pan and heat to 375°, over medium high heat.
- Place flour in a medium bowl and roll each ball in flour coating evenly. When oil is ready drop meatball carefully into oil. It should sizzle immediately.
- Working in batches add meatballs until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Using a spoon flip and cook other side an additional 2 minutes or until golden brown. They will brown up quickly. Transfer meatballs to simmering marinara sauce.
- Continue until all meatballs are added to marinara sauce and toss to coat, cooking until heated through completely about 10 minutes.
- Serve topped with additional parmesan cheese and basil.
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Oatmeal Chocolate Cheesecake M&M Cookies {gluten free + vegetarian}
Curious – do you discard the seeds?
Hi Ruth, My eggplants were small so I didn’t have a lot of seeds. If you are using larger eggplants with a lot of seeds, I would discard them.
How many meatballs per serving?
This recipe makes roughly 14-2″ meatballs and the serving size on the nutritional label is per meatball.
These were wonderful! I substituted nutritional yeast instead of the parmesan cheese and Panko bread crumbs with Italian seasoning. To save time I diced the eggplant, peelings off, and cooked it in salted boiling water for about 10 minutes and then drained and mashed them. I did not deep fry them but just fried them in a little olive oil and didn’t use the flour. My family loved them. Thanks for the recipe!
I am such a huge fan of Nutritional Yeast. I am starting to use it more and more in my recipes in place of Parmesan cheese. Thanks for coming back and letting me know what you thought of the recipe and the changes you made. Always good information for everyone when they go to try the recipe.
Hi what brand of gluten do you buy? Can you substitute TVP?
Not sure I understand your question Brian. What do you mean by TVP?
Do these store well? Coukd I make these ahead of time and then fry just prior to eating? Or could I fry and redheat? Thanks!
You could make them a day or two in advance and then finish cooking them before you want to eat them.
Has anyone frozen these? Someone gave me a bushel of eggplant yesterday so looking for recipes!
Hi there. Do you know if you could prepare and freeze these? Without frying them first? I have a plethora of eggplants in my garden and I don’t want them to go uneaten!!!
These sound delicious! My garden is overflowing with eggplant, and now I know what I’ll be making for tomorrow night’s dinner! Do you think these would freeze well? I’m hoping to make a HUGE batch, cook them up, and freeze for later.
Marina, I have not frozen them. I would give a small batch a try and if you find success go fit it. They are really delicious!
Amy