The scorching weather that I wrote about in my previous blog post continues, and I’m working on my computer now, with my electric fan fixed towards my face. I don’t want to eat anything heavy on these sweltering days, but I still need filling and nutritious food. These balls are an example of such food.

The recipe is easy; put everything in a food processor to make a paste, add a few more stuff afterwards, make balls and bake. This easy process is another way to deal with sweltering summer. You may want to hug your electric fan or air conditioner while you are baking the balls, though. But don’t worry, it only takes 25 minutes to bake them.

These bean balls are great with a sauce – it can be a tomato-based sauce, or it can be a yoghurt based sauce as I usually do. If you have a favourite sauce, tomato or something else based, you can ideally try to combine it with the balls.

Enjoy your bean balls, and have a lovely midsummer!
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Ingredients:

Difficulty: Easy
(makes about 45 balls)

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

2 cans (net weight: 460 gr.) white beans, drained
3 small (about 125 gr. in total) roasted red peppers*
1 medium onion diced (about 110 gr.)
3 garlic cloves, mashed
4 tbsp fresh parsley
1.5 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 large egg
2.5 dl (or 1 cup or 175 gr.) breadcrumbs (use gluten-free if needed), plus more if needed.

Recommended:
a tomato-based sauce
a yoghurt-based sauce

*I used store-bought roasted peppers.

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Prepare one or two oven tray with baking paper.

2. Put all the ingredients except for the breadcrumbs in a food processor and turn to a paste. It will be pretty loose at this point. You can process it thoroughly or make it so that a few pieces are left to bite.

3. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and fold in breadcrumbs. You need the breadcrumbs to absorb the moisture so that you can make balls with the mixture. Use more breadcrumbs than 2.5 dl if you need to.

4. Make balls the size of a walnut. Put the balls on the baking trays. The balls will not expand; therefore, you can put them very close to each other. Put in the medium part of the oven and bake for 25 minutes. When they are ready, take them out of the oven, serve right away or let them cool for at least 15 minutes and do the next step.

5. Optional step which I highly recommend (it does wonder): When the balls cool down a bit, put them on a pan with a bit of oil to make them crispier. See step 10 in this recipe to understand what I mean: https://mydearkitcheninhelsinki.com/2020/06/27/cauliflower-and-couscous-balls-in-vegetable-balls-we-trust/ After that, you can eat them like that, or you can use a tomato or yoghurt-based sauce to serve (or another sauce you like). Enjoy!