These broccoli balls are delicious!!! And that’s all you need to know before making them!

And they are effortless to make. You can then put everything in a food processor or just process the broccoli and mix the rest by hand (which is what I prefer). Combining everything by hand gives a grittier texture, whereas using a food processor for all the ingredients sometimes makes the mixture too smooth. And I like having some texture in the vegetable balls.

I saw this recipe in a vegetarian blog, which I can’t remember anymore because I only noted the ingredients. But I made my minor changes to it anyway. I also used grated cheese like gouda a few times to substitute parmesan. The result was delicious as well. The flavour of gouda is very different from that of parmesan, so it is certainly not the same balls in the end. But what you get is still very delicious.

I like eating these broccoli balls with a light, fresh salad with lots of greens and sometimes also a few grated carrots. If I need a more filling lunch, I eat it with rice pilaf or a nutritious salad with grains. Enjoy yours with whatever you like!
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Ingredients:

Difficulty: Easy
(makes 25 balls)

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

About 450 gr. broccoli florets
2 cloves of garlic
1 egg
1 dl + 4 tsp (or 1/2 cup or 45 gr) grated parmesan
6 tbsp (or 60 gr) gluten-free breadcrumbs
4 tbsp (or 30 gr) ground almond
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1. Put broccoli florets in a pot and cover them with water. Cover the pan with a lid and cook the broccoli on medium-high heat, just until they soften enough to be processed in a food processor. If you cook them too much, they will become like a paste later when you process them (which is not the end of the world, but it’s also not something I prefer).

2. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200C. Prepare an oven tray with baking paper.

3. When the broccoli is ready, drain the water and put the broccoli in a food processor with garlic. Process it briefly until you shred the broccoli into small pieces to form balls. I prefer not to make it too smooth as I like a bit of texture in the balls later.

4. Transfer the broccoli-garlic mixture into a bowl and add the egg. Mix well.

5. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. You can use your hands if you need to.

6. Take small pieces from the mixture, form balls about a walnut’s size, and put the balls on the prepared oven tray. Bake them in the middle part of the oven for 25 minutes until they get just a little browned. You can eat them like that or sauté them a bit on a pan with vegetable oil to make them crispier. Check out step 10 of this cauliflower balls recipe for that. Enjoy!