The beetroot balls, commonly know as the The Beetballs (with capital letters because that’s how famous they are) are amongst the Salty’s favorite on retreats. Our local chef, Cristina, accepted to share some of her greatest recipes with us -with you- throughout the next few weeks, starting with this one.
There are many ways to enjoy these amazing meat-free beetroot balls, you can have them on a salad bowl, with spaghetti or zucchini noodles or how we personally prefer them: by themselves with tzatziki!
↠ Ingredients ↞
(Makes about 20-25 balls)
1 medium raw beet shredded
½ cup pecans roughly chopped
½ médium red onion, coarsely chopped
1 branch of parsley leaves, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup cooked chickpeas
2 copped tbsp of ground flax seed
2 tbsp of rice flour
2 tspn oregano
1 tspn paprika
1 tspn cumin
¼ tspn cayenne pepper
↠ Method ↞
1- Combine all ingredients in the food process and blend until you get a chunky dough. (around 1 minute, depending on your food processor)
2- Use a tablespoon to measure the amount of dough, and form into a ball with your hands.
3- Beetballs can be either fried or oven-baked
-If you fry: On a non-stick pan heat the oil to cover almost half of the beetroot balls.
Wait until the oil is hot enough and then start placing the beetroot balls in the oil carefully and fry for around 2 minutes, then flip them to fry the other side for around one more minute, take them out of the oil on a paper towel to take out the excess oil.
-If you bake: Preheat the oven on 350°C, grease a baking sheet and place the beetroot balls. Bake for 45 minutes.
Enjoy!
Photo credit: Shelby Neufeld
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