Easy Vegan Black Bean Meatballs are a delicious plant-based alternative to regular meatballs. These hearty and savory veggie meatballs are perfect over pasta with marinara sauce, a party appetizer, or making an incredible vegan meatball sub. Low-fat, oil-free, and filling!
Alright, everyone, life just got good. Why? Because of Vegan Black Bean Meatballs. These bad boys are savory, hearty, full of flavor, and won’t fall apart on you. They’re also delicious and super easy to make using wholesome plant-based ingredients.
OK, first things first. Yes, I am calling them black bean “meat” balls. Do you honestly think Big Bean Balls, Big Black Bean Balls, or even Bean Balls is a better option? I love a good “That’s what she said!” moment as much as the next guy. But, I’m trying to be professional.
That being said, they are not just like regular meatballs. Because they are not meat!
But, if you’ve been craving comfort food these veggie meatballs are perfect. And, vegan or not, people will love them.
Why You Will Love These Vegan Black Bean Meatballs
They’re…
- Savory
- Hearty and filling
- Easy to make
- Made with wholesome plant-based ingredients
- Healthy
- Oil-free
- Low-fat
- & INSANELY DELICIOUS!
Ready? Let’s do this!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Black beans are an excellent substitute for meat because they’re hearty, full of protein, and have a very earthy flavor. They hold together very when mixed with some bread crumbs. And, once combined with some savory Italian spices they make the perfect vegan meatball.
- Flax Egg: made by combining warm water and ground flax seeds. You can find the recipe HERE. DO NOT use whole flax seeds!
- Black Beans: I prefer using low-sodium or no salt added canned black beans. They’re cheap, accessible, and easy.
- Breadcrumbs: Panko or whole wheat bread crumbs are both great options. Just be sure and read the label if using panko.
- Vegan Parmesan: both vegan parm or nutritional yeast are great for adding that nutty cheesy element found a good meat ball. I used my Plant-based Parmesan and it was delicious.
- Italian Seasoning: dried oregano, dried marjoram, dried thyme, dried basil, dried rosemary, dried sage. If this is too much just use 2 tablespoons of store-bought Italian seasoning.
- Minced Onion: I decided to use minced onion instead of onion powder. It adds a little bit of texture and you still get the great flavor that onions bring to a dish.
- Garlic Powder: the flavor of garlic powder is more concentrated than fresh garlic. It’s also much easier than chopping or mincing your own garlic. Just sayin’…
- Ketchup: for adding sweetness and a little bite of acidity to the recipe. You could also use an equal amount of regular tomato sauce as well.
- Worcestershire Sauce: It’s an easy way to add deep flavor and it helps to balance any sweetness in a recipe.
- Sea Salt and black pepper to taste: I suggest mixing everything together, tasting, then adding salt and pepper as needed.
How To Make Vegan Black Bean Meatballs
Easy vegan black bean meatballs are super easy to make, savory, hearty, don’t fall apart, and filling.
- Preheat your oven to 375˚F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Then prepare the flax egg and set it aside.
- Drain and rinse the black beans, microwave for 1 minute, and mash with a fork or potato masher until they are fairly smooth. Add the remaining ingredients, including the flax egg, and mix everything together until well combined. The mixture should have a firm, but moldable, dough consistency.
- Scoop out 1 Tbsp of mixture, roll into a ball, and set on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat until all of black bean meatball mixture has been used.
- Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. The black bean meatballs should crisp up on the outside.
- Remove from the oven, let sit for just a couple of minutes. Enjoy as you would regular meatballs.
- Serving Suggestion: place the cooked black bean meatballs in a nonstick frying pan or skillet, add your favorite marinara sauce, and cook over medium-high heat until everything is hot. Remove from heat and enjoy!
Serving Suggestions
The most obvious way to enjoy these vegan meatballs is on top of pasta covered in your favorite marinara sauce. But, here are a few more options.
- You can make some amazing vegan meatball subs. All you need is some bread, marinara sauce, and my best vegan mozzarealla. It’s every bit as divine as you imagine it would be.
- Add these meatballs to your favorite veggies and make one hearty dinner bowl.
- Throw’em on your party platter and cover them in BBQ sauce for an amazing appetizer.
- Add some spices like chili powder, cumin, and smoked paprika and make the best vegan meatball tacos.
- Use them as a topping and make an incredilbe vegan pizza.
These are just a few suggestions but the possibilities are endless.
Tips For Making Awesome Black Bean Meatballs
- Be sure and use vegetarian Worcestershire sauce because most brands contain anchioves. I know, right?
- You don’t have to use all dried ingredients. You can use fresh basil, fresh parsley, and even real cloves of garlic. They are excellent options in this recipe. But, you will want to double the amount compared to the dry ingredients. And, you will need to mix everything together using a food processor so everything can be incorporated into the mixture.
- If you want to make this recipe gluten-free just be sure and use gluten-free bread crumbs. If you can’t find any cornmeal is an excellent option.
- Microwave the black beans for 1 minute. This will help them to dry out just a bit and be easier to mash.
Storing and Freezing
- Refrigerator: Place leftover black bean meatballs in a covered container for up to 1 week.
- Freezer: You can freeze vegan black bean meatballs for up to 1 month. Cooked or uncooked.
More Vegan Comfort Foods
I hope you enjoy these Easy Vegan Black Bean Meatballs. Please leave a comment below with a star rating. And, be sure and share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #shaneandsimple. I want to see your work. Enjoy!
Easy Vegan Black Bean Meatballs
Easy Vegan Black Bean Meatballs are a delicious plant-based alternative to regular meatballs. These hearty and savory veggie meatballs are perfect over pasta with marinara sauce, a party appetizer, or making an incredible vegan meatball sub. Low-fat, oil-free, and filling!
- Prep Time: 10 mins.
- Cook Time: 20 mins.
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 meatballs 1x
- Category: Vegan Main Dishes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Vegan
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 1 flax egg
- 1 can (15-ounce) low sodium or no salt added black beans, drained and rinsed
- ¼ cup of panko bread crumbs or whole wheat bread crumbs
- ¼ cup Vegan Parmesan or you can just use nutritional yeast
- Italian Seasoning: 1 teaspoon dried oregano, ½ teaspoon dried marjoram, ½ teaspoon dried thyme, ½ teaspoon dried basil, ½ teaspoon dried rosemary, ½ teaspoon dried sage. You may also use 2 tablespoons of store-bought Italian seasoning.
- 2 tablespoons dried minced onion
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons ketchup or tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375˚F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Then prepare the flax egg and set it aside.
- Drain and rinse the black beans, microwave for 1 minute, and mash with a fork or potato masher until they are fairly smooth. Add the remaining ingredients, including the flax egg, and mix everything together until well combined. The mixture should have a firm, but moldable, dough consistency.
- Scoop out 1 tablespoon of the mixture, roll into a ball, and set on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat until all of the black bean meatball mixture has been used.
- Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. The black bean meatballs should crisp up on the outside.
- Remove from the oven, let sit for just a couple of minutes. Enjoy as you would regular meatballs.
- Serving Suggestion: Place the cooked black bean meatballs in a nonstick frying pan or skillet, add your favorite marinara sauce, and cook over medium heat until everything is hot. Remove from heat and enjoy!
Notes
If you don’t have a food processor use a fork or potato masher. Then, transfer the mashed black beans into a large mixing bowl, add the remaining ingredients, and proceed as mentioned above. FYI, the mixture tends to be fairly thick so feel free to use your hands to combine everything.
Place leftover black bean meatballs in a covered container for up to 1 week.
You can freeze vegan black bean meatballs for up to 1 month. Cooked or uncooked.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 3 Meatballs
- Calories: 172
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 113.7 mg
- Fat: 1.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 29.6 g
- Fiber: 8.9 g
- Protein: 10.5 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
I just made these and sampled one straight out of the oven and they are delicious! I am not plant based, so used half an egg ( I did not have flax egg). I dialed back the ketchup slightly to adjust for the wetness of the egg and subbed half the breadcrumbs for blended steel coat oats. Amazing- can think of loads of uses- veggie breakfast, sambos, pasta, tapas. Will be making a big batch next time. Thank you so much!
These meatballs are really good. They actually look like regular meatballs even when cut in half. I think I should have baked mine a little longer because they were mushy. I baked about 35 minutes. I’ll definitely make these again. Thank you for the recipe.
Why have I been using “meatball” recipes with a plethora of ingredients and steps?? These are no fuss and absolutely delicious. And great texture; so many plant based meatballs are mushy; not these!! Perfection!!
Wow!These Black Bean Meatballs are Amazing! Absolutely Delicious and Flavorful! I added cooked Quinoa to the mix. Other than that I followed the Recipe exactly! They turned out perfectly! They held together really well! We ate them with Angel Hair Pasta and Spaghetti Sauce. We loved them! They are so easy to make! Very simple directions to follow. I Highly Recommend this Recipe! You won’t be able to tell the difference between Vegetarian or No Meat! I will definitely make them again! I used my Cuisinart and they came together so quickly! I love how simple this was! The flavor is Divine and Outstanding! Thank you for sharing your Delicious Recipe with us! 😋💜
So, here’s what happened. I prepared the recipe as written using my 1 tablespoon cookie scoop. I got 24 meat balls. I put the marinara sauce in the drained pasta pan, added the meat balls hot from the oven then added the drained pasta. I stirred very gently but they fell apart. FANTASTIC; a wonderful ragu! I made enough pasta and sauce for 4 and since it is just the hubs and me, we have leftovers for another day. I may try leaving these as meatballs the next time I make them, but this was so good it will be tempting to repeat this little mishap.
When life hands you crushed black bean meatballs, make sauce:) Love it!
BTW flax egg… amazing!! I’ll be using this again
I truly enjoyed making this recipe. It was very tasty it held up very nicely and it was tender crispy and ” oooh sooo yummy” < my kids words. My whole family enjoyed these meatballs with pasta. Thank you so much.
LOVE IT!
Disclaimer: I’ve never had meatballs before, so I can’t compare. I had a half can of black beans and felt adventurous. Thank you, Shane, for this recipe! I thought it was a bit too mushy inside for my taste (maybe leaving larger pieces of beans than I did would change that), but my wife was really excited about them. (She had had meatballs.) I used my own Italian seasoning mix (slight variation of yours, and already done) and accidentally used twice as much as you suggest, which turned out to be perfect. I don’t use any herbs in my vodka pasta sauce, that’s why it was probably OK.
One tip to share, as a thank you: just slightly oil a baking sheet instead of using parchment paper: 1. once you made the balls, you can roll them around the sheet a bit, so they can pick up some of the oil (a trick I always use whenever I’m supposed to spray oil on anything before roasting/baking, since I don’t use oil spray); 2. the balls get nicely brown wherever they touch the sheet, unlike with a parchment paper, which is also why I turn the balls half-way (just giving the sheet a good shake is sufficient); 3. less waste; 4. you just may end up with a more non-stick baking sheets.
These “meatballs” are delicious!!! I had some left over quinoa( about a cup and added it in. Now I add it in all the time. I I break them apart in some spaghetti sauce and the texture is just like mmm meat sauce😀
These are fantastic! They have a kind of pizza flavor, must be from the Italian seasoning, I’ve been looking for new recipes and this one is definitely a keeper 🙂
Shane, this is the best vegan meatball recipe I have tried. So easy to make. I omitted the Worcestershire. I cooked them for just under 20 minutes at 350 and then put them in my marinara sauce. WFPB eaters are missing nothing with your recipes! Creative, delicious and healthy!
Wow, thank you so much!!!
These are delicious!! So quick and easy to wip up when I’m craving Spaghetti and meatballs. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Excellent! They are very flavorful. Thank you!
Could I make burgers with this mixture? Any changes in ingredients or bake time?
Sure!
A couple weeks ago my daughter and I were talking about recipes and I mentioned your website. I sent her your meatball recipe and she tried them and said they were delicious. She thought I’d already tried them. I made them yesterday and we had them with marinara tonight. They are delicious. They weren’t overly crumbly like most bean based meatballs nor were they hard as a stone. I’m envisioning them with a bbq sauce or a sweet and sour Asian sauce.
Thank you so much! Yeah, they’re great with Asian sauce, BBQ sauce, and make great sandwiches.
These are amazingly delicious! My family who is not plant based enjoyed them also. I used leftovers on a crusty piece of Italian bread and some of your vegan mozzarella, and it was an amazing meatball sandwich! Truly delicious and will definitely have these in my regular rotation!
Awesome! Thank you so much!!!
Thanks Shane. This is a 5 Star Winner. It is so easy to put together and they held together well and we’re delicious. Kinda reminded me of my mil fabulous Italian meatballs. CIAO
These were great! They were the best vegan “meatball,” I have ever tasted. Even the carnivore in the house loved them. Made them with your marinara sauce and “parmesan cheese” which were both terrific. Thank you so much for more terrific recipes!
Do you think I could sub either rolled oats or cooked brown rice for the bread crumbs?
Yes, either should work although I’m not sure of the outcome as I haven’t tried either of those in this recipe. Let me know.
Oh, wow, Shane. Amazing blend of spices in this recipe. For the record, I used homemade oat flour (from rolled oats), and subbed it 1:1 for the bread crumbs. The raw mixture was a little bit wetter than expected but the final product was spot on. Thank you!
These are the best vegan meatballs I have ever tried, and I have tried lentil, eggplant and black bean meatball versions of burger recipes! Very flavorful. Thank you.
These seem very small compared to meat meatballs…can they be made larger n if so how much longer to cook
Make them as large as you like. The cooking time will remain the same depending on your preference.
Thanks! These held together well and were easy to cook. I did use a little less Italian seasoning and used the nutritional yeast instead of the vegan Parmesan (because I didn’t have any). I will make another batch and reduce the seasonings by at least half or more and omit the Worcestershire. The taste was way too strong for me, even with marinara sauce on the meatballs. I think just personal taste. But I definitely will try again!
We love these! So easy and really have a great savory taste.
Thank you!
These “meatballs” are really tasty and the consistency is good, though I did add a bit of oil to the mixture (I don’t have health issues related to oil intake). I did not have to serve them to my family with any sauce; we just ate them plain. No mustard, ketchup or anything. Will make again and again for sure. Thanks, Shane. A real find for me; so many vegetarian meatballs have flaws; not this recipe!
Really easy and delicious. I used marinara instead of ketchup. Will make again. Thanks for another great recipe.
Question: The amounts of each dried seasoning you list (oregano, basil, sage, etc), measures to a total of 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon of dried herbs – but you also suggested one could substitute store bought Italian seasoning – but a measurement of 2 tablespoons. Was this an error / too much? It seems like a lot for only one can of black beans, but I confess I’m new at the vegan thing, so maybe it’s different than meat. Just asking because I wanted to be sure before I proceed… however I’m hungry, so I’ll probably just make it this way anyway, and correct next time if need be. Thanks for sharing this recipe, because it’s often hard to find something quick to make on a weeknight after a long day of work! 🙂
No, it’s fine and correct:)
These are fantastic, Shane. They cooked perfectly. We added them to your sauce and loaded it onto grinder rolls. We’ll be having them often. 🙂
Awesome!!! That sounds so good and so glad you enjoyed them.
I loved these!! I thought they added such nice depth to Mafaldine pasta with tomato sauce. I also love a recipe where everything goes straight into the mix at once … and the prep time was minimal. I appreciate the explanations throughout the recipe. And this was my very first flax egg!! I’m looking forward to serving the left overs to my Italian class tomorrow night :)) Will definitely make these again.
Thank you!
I can’t have nutritional yeast. Should I still make the vegan parmesan without it? Or leave out the vegan parmesan from the recipe?
You could leave it out.
Made these tonight for spaghetti dinner and they were delicious with really great flavour! ! Super easy to make and very yummy!
It looks like something I would like but I have I question….if put into sauce will they fall apart? I want one that stays together. Thanks Shane
Hi, Karla!
I’ve not had any issues with them falling apart. Just be sure and follow the directions in the recipe card. Bake them first, then add to a skillet with the sauce, and heat over medium to medium-high. I think you’ll be happy:)
shane
hiya ~ would love to make these, but I don’t have a microwave ~ suggestion please? Thank you for sharing your amazing recipes!
Hi, Zsa Zsa!
A microwave is not necessary for the recipe. It was more of a recommendation just to help with the mashing. Thank you for the kind words.
OK Shane, I love your approach and your recipes, and I trust your judgement, but… Just how “moist” are these puppies? Every veggie/vegan meatball I have ever made, and I’ve made more than I can count, have been too mushy in the middle. I realize that to a point that can’t be helped, but man as an old Italian I really miss the real deal, and making pasta with red sauce is the only time I miss real meat. I’ll make these for sure and let you know my thoughts. Thanks for all your great work, all kidding aside, your site rocks!
The “moist” is not like “meat moist” but just not dry. Veggie burgers and veggie balls will never be like the real thing, but for me it’s more about flavor now and something not disintegrating when I take a bite. Hopefully, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Please, stay in touch.
shane
These sound great! What is the purpose of microwaving the black beans? We don’t have a microwave and wonder if I can skip the heating step altogether? Or should I warm the beans in a skillet?
Hi, Courtney!
It’s simply to soften the beans to make them easier to mash. But, it’s not necessary. You can skip this step if you wish.
shane
Easy Vegan Black Bean Meatballs are a delicious plant-based alternative to regular meatballs. These moist and savory veggie meatballs are perfect over pasta with marinara sauce, a party appetizer, or making an incredible vegan meatball sub. Low-fat, oil-free, and filling!