People are choosing to decrease meat consumption for many reasons; ethical, environmental, health and budgetary.

Whatever your reason, one of the ways you can decrease your consumption is by not always focusing on meat as the centre of your meal. Thinking about it as the side instead.

For me, it’s a juggle between my preference for a largely plant based diet and my husband’s preference to live as a carnivore!

These meatballs were a pretty good compromise and they were very well received.

• a dozen  medium button mushrooms, roughly chopped
• half a brown onion, diced
• 1.5 tbsp garlic olive oil
• 1 large carrot
• 1 tsp thyme
• 500g beef mince
• 200g cooked chick peas (about 1/2 a tin)
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp coconut aminos
• olive oil to cook

Place the garlic oil in a hot frying pan, fry the onion until it begins to soften, then add in the mushrooms.

Fry the mushrooms until they begin to soften and then add the grated carrot.

Mix well, add in salt and pepper to taste, thyme and the coconut aminos.

Fry, stirring regularly, until the carrot is soft.

Into your food processors, place the beef mince, the mix from the frying pan and the chick peas.

Process until well combined and fairly smooth. (Speed 4, 8 seconds, scrape down and repeat)

Place mix into the fridge for at least half an hour but up to a full day – this will help the mix tighten and hold together better when you cook it later on.

Form teaspoons of the mix into small balls and then place into a frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of oil – don’t have the frying pan searing hot or you’ll burn them before they cook properly. Cook on each side until golden brown and cooked through.

Next time I make them, I will bake them after spraying with olive oil instead of frying  – I’ll update when I do.

Makes about 24. Serve with your favourite sides – pasta, veggies, salads, or even in a sandwich!

These don’t freeze particularly well (the tend to fall apart a little bit) but they are delicious for lunches over the next couple of days. I had mine with salad and avocado – yum!

Enjoy