Vegan spinach rice balls - high in protein and iron

5 Oct 2017

I wanted to make something healthy again so I thought of a dish that's high in protein and iron as well. So these rice balls not only contain spinach, gram flour and almonds, all of which are rich in plant-protein and iron. And to boost the taste I also added black kalamata olives.

They are easy and fun to make and also great way to get your greens in, kids will love them. They also freeze well, so you could make them in advance, freeze and then put into the oven whenever you fancy them.

You can easily take them with you and have as a pre of post workout snack. They are quite similar to Italian arancini but much healthier.

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Vegan spinach rice balls - high in protein and iron

These spinach rice balls are a perfect healthy starter and absolutely delicious. Serve with soy or coconut yoghurt or a dairy-free cashew sour cream (recipe can be found here).

spinach rice balls, high in protein and iron

Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, they are a great protein and an excellent iron booster.

INGREDIENTS (roughly 12 balls):

Spinach ball ingredients part 1:

130g spinach leaves
70g pitted kalamata olives
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp salt

Spinach ball ingredients part 2:

250g cooked rice
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 cup chickpea/besam flour

Other ingredients:

Soy or vegan coconut yoghurt
Cashew sour cream (recipe here)

Make cooking easier with my ingredient converter: Click to open

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METHOD:

Preheat your oven to 180C (360F).

Add all ingredients of part 1 into a food processor and blend.

Then transfer the mixture into a large bowl and mix in the ingredients of part 2. Mix together well until you get a nice dough like texture. If it's too wet add a little bit more chickpea flour. Don't taste it now as uncooked chickpea flour is very bitter. Add pepper to taste as well if you like.

Create roughly 12 balls with your hands (it's a bit messy but fun) and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Put into the preheated oven and bake for 20 - 25 min (probably 20 min will do, you can check by tasting one of them, if there is no bitter taste to it then it's perfect).

Serve with some soy or vegan coconut yoghurt or even try my dairy-free cashew sour cream. Enjoy!

And if you love spinach also try my vegan spinach crepes with tahini dressing, recipe here.