Crispy baked vegan meatballs with creamy orzo packed with spinach, sun dried tomatoes and lots of delicious flavour!

It dawned on me that I make these vegan meatballs on the regular but have never made an actual blog post about them.  I have them with so many things – quick marinara sauce and spaghetti, one pot pasta bake (working on that recipe too).  I even have them in wraps or in these meatball subs.  Yum.  And I fancied something a little different so meatballs with creamy orzo sounded just different enough!

The orzo is all cooked in one pan that you can prepare while the meatballs are baking, making this a deceptively easy dish.  It does seem like a bit of a shopping list of ingredients and you could, technically, forgo the making of the balls and use bought ones.  Because you really shouldn’t miss out on this creamy dreamy orzo.

How to make vegan meatballs:

These are so easy and so tasty and only take a few minutes to whip up.  And they really are as simple as putting everything into a food processor.  I like to keep them a little chunkier so I don’t over-whizz.  But that’s up to you.  You might prefer a smoother meatball so whizz to however you like!

Roll into balls (the recipe makes about 14) and bake in the oven until crisp and lightly golden.

If you don’t have black garlic to hand you can use regular garlic or garlic powder.  But just generally I recommend you try and get hold of some.  It has the most wonderful umami smell and flavour.  It’s sweeter than regular garlic and much less harsh.  And SO versatile – try mushing a clove or two and adding to a salad dressing.  Heaven.

How to make creamy orzo pasta:

Heat a little oil and vegan butter in a medium/large skillet.  The butter is for flavour, the oil helps stop the butter from burning.

Saute the onion and garlic for a couple of minutes until starting to soften and turn translucent.  Add the sun dried tomatoes and saute for a further minute or two.  Take a moment to enjoy the smell 😉

Add the orzo, wine, vegetable stock and lemon juice and let everything bubble for 8-10 minutes until the orzo is cooked and most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Stir in the spinach to wilt it into the pasta then stir in the cream.  Season to taste.

Nestle the meatballs into the orzo pan and stir to coat the meatballs.  I didn’t do this.  Mostly because I forgot but I’m going with the excuse that I wanted to show you the meatballs and their wonderful texture.  If you don’t do this it doesn’t really matter.  It’s all getting shovelled into the same place.

Looking for more deliciously easy vegan meal ideas?  Try these:

Gnocchi with sprouts and sage butter

Creamy tomato and black garlic tagliatelle

Lemon and herb orzo with roasted tomatoes

Udon noodles with black garlic and king oyster mushrooms

I’d also love to hear from you if you make these Sage and Black Garlic Meatballs with Creamy Orzo! Just leave a comment as it’s so helpful and I love to hear how the recipe worked out for you! Thank you so much!

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