Five-Spice Vegetarian Balls

Alright as promised, I'm going to share with you my 5-spice vegetarian meatballs recipe! I actually came up with this recipe after trying to make some falafels. Instead of using curry powder, I changed the seasoning to 5-spice seasonings, the one you can get at supermarkets! Here goes:

Five Spice Vegetarian Balls 

Ingredients:

- 500gr chickpeas

- 3 cloves garlic

- 3 cloves shallots

- 5 dried shitake mushroom (or fresh ones!)

- 1 carrot, boiled and diced finely

- 1 teaspoon of cornstarch

- Five spice seasoning to taste

- Salt and pepper

Directions:

If you are using dried chickpeas like me, soak the chickpeas in water overnight. Make sure you have at least 6 - 10cm of water above the chickpeas. If you are using canned ones just use them right away. Same goes for the shitake mushroom. After soaking them in water, dice the mushroom finely so that you can incorporate them into the crushed chickpeas. Same for carrots too!

I don't have a food processor so I blend the garlic, shallots and salt together in a pestle and mortar into a fine paste. I smash and crush the peace out of the chickpeas (get what I mean?) using a huge pestle and mortar too haha. Blend the chickpeas until they are almoooost fine. Do use a food processor if you have it! Anyway for the consistency it's really up to your preference. For me I like it not too fine, so that my "meatballs" have a bit of texture inside it. Once everything is blended, combine everything!

I put everything in a plastic container and use my wonderful hand to mix everything in. Fun fact: Some Indonesians believe that your food will taste nicer if you mix them using only one hand, and not both. Also please don't use your left hand. It's considered the "dirty" hand.

Once everything is combined, make into balls about 3/4 of the size of a ping pong ball. You can make them into a patty too to make burgers. Anyway one trick I learned from my sister-in-law is to fry one piece first to give it a taste and see if you lack any seasoning. When I cooked these I find that my mixture lacks in five-spice fragrance so I added more. Fry these balls in batches until they turn golden brown. Best served when it's hot! Either with chili sauce or garlic-soy dipping sauce :)

There you have it! The first of my recipe series (gonna label it as MVR - My Vegetarian Recipe). Sorry for the lack of photos, I might consider taking photos of the steps taken and include them. I will update you with more recipes! Happy cooking, and I hope you like the recipe. Try to eat less meat alright :P