This recipe came to me from Vanessa Lynn Wood when I enquired to Cayuga Pure Organics about how to prepare live oat groats that the co-op has been carrying. There are some recommendations to adapt for vegans, note I haven't tried these adaptations yet.-- JillW - 25 May 2010

Yield: About a dozen yummy yummy meat-less balls. Goes so so well with green salad and pasta (we used quinoa/corn pasta)

Ingredients:

1 small winter squash of choice, baked (delicata worked really well), enough to yield a cup of good squash "meat"
3 or 4 cloves garlic, diced roughly
1/2 cup chopped raw walnuts
1/2 cup live whole oat groats
1/3 cup bean sprouts (mung, chickpea work great) - cooked beans would probably work well too
2/3 cup fresh or re-hydrated mushroom of choice (mitake work fabulously, but I imagine about any others would too)
4 or 5 tbsp. virgin olive oil or virgin sunflower/olive oil blend
sea salt, black pepper to taste
savory herb seasoning to taste
ground anise seeds to taste
dashes worchestershire sauce to taste (we used 12-15) (omit for vegans or use vegan worchestershire)
1 organic free-range egg (vegans can try extra oil or make a flax egg)

smother with sauce:
2 or 3 cups tomato sauce
1 small plum tomato, diced ... simmer with sauce for a few min. or add raw when sauce is warmed
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped - I like to add some to sauce while simmering, throw in some raw at end
other herbs and/or veggies of choice ... add to the sauce or mix in raw when serving, depending on how you like it, may even be good mixed in the 'meat'balls

top with brewer's yeast or nutritional yeast for b vitamins

Directions:

1. Cook squash as desired. You want to end up with a cup of diced, slightly firm, good squash "meat". There are many ways to achieve this. I massage with oil, poke holes, bake at 375F for 10 min or so with a half inch of water in a covered pie pan, then chop open once soft, take out seeds (save for later for roasting?) and stringies, massage some more oil on and maybe herbs, replace water if evaporated, re-cover and bake for 20-50 more min. depending on size till soft.

2. Oil the pan that you used for the squash and return diced squash (meat only) back into the pan. Add diced garlic, drizzle some oil on top, add a teaspoon of water, sprinkle some sea salt and stick it back into the oven for awhile at 400 degrees F until the garlic is starting to roast and the squash mashes easily with a fork, about 8 min. (while it is roasting, sautee mushrooms and sprouts in some oil <see direction #2>, checking oven occasionally to prevent burning.) Once it's done, remove from oven and mash with a fork.

2. Sautee finely chopped mushrooms in a little oil for about 5-8 min. or until softly cooked. This may be a good time to add some seasoning (salt, pepper, herbs, anise, worchestershire, etc.) Add bean sprouts and sautee for the last 1-3 min.

3. Grind live oats in a coffee grinder. You may have to do this a few times, they should look like steel cut oats when done, with some fine flour on the bottom. This is good. Add most of the nuts (all but 2 tbsp.) for a final grind.

4. Add ground oats and walnuts to mashed squash/garlic/oil mix. Throw in 2 tsp. of chopped walnuts that you set aside for some texture. Add slowly with the sauteed mushrooms/sprouts and adjust your amounts so that you get a texture that is sort of doughy.

5. Move doughy mix to a bowl and add a raw free-range chicken egg, or experiment with oil, nut or flax goo. mix until you have a nice sticky dough.

6. wipe oiled pan with a bit more oil to get a clean, oily surface (I kept using the same pan!) and drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto it. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for about 15-17 min. (check till they are well browned and firm/ a little spongy when tapped with a fork.) Take out of oven.

7. Let cool, after a min. or so flip with a fork and wait until they are a safe eating temperature.

Serve smothered with sauce, or on top of something else smothered in sauce. you may also want to crumble one or two into the sauce while warming. Sprinkle with yeast and/or fresh herbs once served if desired. yum yummy yummers!


*note on ingredients: you can make many variations on this. You can mix up the seasonings, try it with brazil nuts or another oily nut instead of walnuts, perhaps even make it vegan by replacing the egg with some extra squash or oil and perhaps a bit of tahini or nut butter (watch the amount of tahini as it has a strong taste). Also I am tempted to try lots of things like adding a little finely chopped scallions to the sauteed mushrooms, or even switching it up with some virgin coconut oil instead of olive oil with some grated ginger, corriander, and using an asian flavored sauce instead of marinara (spicy peanut lime or dahl?) For extra iron, I fantasize about adding some grated beet, maybe mixed with grated ginger, for the ultimate in mock-meatball nutrition. If you don't like mushrooms or nuts you may even be able to replace them with grated, sauteed zucchini and soaked or sprouted sunflower/pumpkin seeds. Got some special oil around that you love like truffle or roasted butternut squash seed? Add a splash of that!