Vegan Swedish Meatballs
Super flavorful Vegan Swedish Meatballs that are also gluten-free, oil-free and nut-free.
Vegan Swedish Meatballs
Ultimate comfort food, at your service. But this comfort food is also healthy, so it’s a total guilt-free win.
I HAD to make a vegan recipe for Swedish meatballs – the gravy alone is just so good. The meatballs are made from lentils, mushrooms, oat flour, soy sauce, and more seasoning. For the accompanying gravy, we’ll achieve that luscious gravy using a combination of coconut milk and soy (or almond) milk.
How to Make the Swedish Meatballs
There are three main components to the meatballs: the lentils, the mushrooms, and the oats.
First, sauté onion and garlic. Then add lentils and water to the pot to cook until tender. In the meantime, sauté the mushrooms in a separate pan.
To make oat flour, I prefer using the food processor. Just add in some rolled oats and process until a rough powder forms. It will not be as fine as all-purpose flour. Once you have your oat flour, add in the lentils, mushrooms, and remaining seasoning (parsley, allspice, nutmeg, pepper, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce.) There are vegan Worcestershire sauce brands out there. Annie’s is one brand, which I have found at Whole Foods and Earth Fare. The Kroger brand is also vegan if you have one near you.
I like to blend the mixture until all of the ingredients are incorporated together, but still some whole lentils and little chunks of mushrooms visible.
Perfectly Luscious Vegan Gravy
Yes, you can totally achieve creamy and rich gravy without using butter or oil. The “secret” is canned coconut milk – you can use full-fat, but I used light coconut milk for this recipe. To dull down the coconut flavor, we’ll thin it out with some almond milk or soy milk. The seasonings for the gravy include dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper.
After you bring the gravy to simmer, remove it from the heat and whisk in a cornstarch slurry. Making a cornstarch slurry is as simple as mixing cornstarch with water. You can also use arrowroot powder.
I love serving these vegan Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes. Sometimes I make just the gravy to go over potatoes. Yum!
Vegan Swedish Meatballs
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 3 tbsp water
- 1/2 yellow onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup dry lentils green or brown
- 1.5 cup water
- 1.5 cup mushrooms roughly chopped
- 3 tbsp water
- 3/4 cup rolled oats
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2-3 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce make sure its vegan
Gravy
- 1 cup unsweetened, plain soy or almond milk
- 1 can (13.5oz) low-fat/light coconut milk
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder
- 2 tbsp cold water
Instructions
Meatballs
- In a medium-sized pot, sauté the onion in 3 tbsp water until translucent on medium heat (add more water if necessary). Add in garlic and sauté for additional 2-3 minutes.
- Add in lentils and 1.5 cup water. Bring to a boil then let simmer for 15-20 minutes (until liquid is absorbed and lentils are tender.)
- In a separate skillet, sauté mushrooms in 3 tbsp water on medium heat for about 5 minutes.
- Blend oats in a food processor (or a blender) to create oat flour.
- To the food processor, add in the mushrooms, lentils, parsley, allspice, nutmeg, pepper, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Process until everything is combined. Don't process until it's total mush - some texture from the lentils and mushrooms should still be there.
- Add more soy sauce (or salt) and pepper if needed.
- Let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes. It will become thicker and easy to roll.
- Pre-heat oven to 425F degrees.
- Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Roll into meatballs and place onto baking sheet. Spray with some cooking oil if desired. Bake for 20-25 minutes, flipping halfway.
Gravy
- In a medium-sized pot, add in all gravy ingredients EXCEPT for the cornstarch and water.
- Bring to a simmer on medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water to create a cornstarch slurry. Whisk the cornstarch mixture into the gravy.
- Return the pot to the burner and bring to a simmer again. The sauce should be nice and thick. If it's too thin, add a little more cornstarch slurry.
- Pour the gravy over the meatballs. Eat as is, or serve with pasta or mashed potatoes.
My husband and I felt this was pretty good for meatballs and gravy. My meatballs were a bit dense and wet so I probably need to add more oats. I’m thinking of adding pieces of vegan toasted bread. We eliminated coconut from our diet so I substituted the coconut milk for almond milk. I had to add more cornstarch to thicken the gravy since it didn’t have any fat from the coconut milk. We liked the gravy so much we ate it with just rice too. Thank you for this recipe.
This rating is mostly for the gravy, since we “cheated” and used Impossible meatballs. This was so easy to make and totally delicious!
First off, please let me say that I very, very much appreciate your sharing your expertise. I do a *lot* of vegan cooking and I simply love experimenting with new recipes on the weekend.
That said, I have to be honest and say that my wife and I both were underwhelmed at these meatballs. I appreciate that they were made oil-free, and very healthy, but they simply weren’t worth the trouble. The sauce also was, to be blunt, insipid. Please don’t take this as a slam, because I know you work hard to provide healthy and interesting meals for vegans like me. This one just wasn’t something we’d make again.
Okay, how to put this as politely as I can…
They are f█CENSORED█g incredible!!!
I’ll admit, I was a little skeptical at first, seeing how goopy and sticky they were, but they rolled up nicely (especially after adding a little panko to correct for my “oops”), baked up nicely, and now I’m forcing myself not to snack on them while waiting for the noodles to finish! (I decided farfalle would be a good match for these.)
Not giving the 5-star rating here because I already gave it, and don’t want to artificially inflate the ratings. Thank you for this recipe that is sure to become a favorite in my rotation!
Haven’t tasted them yet – the meatballs just went in the oven. Simmered the lentils covered, and was wondering why they were done but still had a lot of liquid! Oops…so I uncovered it, turned the heat up to medium, let the liquid boil off, but it came out a little goopy and sticky (and I only pulsed about three times), so I added some panko – problem solved! Tasted a little bit as I was cleaning off my hands after the mess (I HIGHLY recommend either putting a little vegan butter or cooking spray on your hands while rolling your meatballs – oil-free can use frequent coatings of water) and that was great, so I can’t wait until the finished product pops out!
Gravy is likewise – smells good, tastes good, and I haven’t even put a fire under it yet. I’ll pop back in after I’ve stuffed my face! 😀
Made your recipe tonight and the basics were wonderful! I added way more pepper, and other seasonings to tone down the coconut sweetness. Loved the meatball recipe, too. I posted a photo on FB and tagged you.
Thanks for a great recipe! I doubled the meatballs and did a straight recipe of the gravy which was plenty for all of them. I smothered the balls and steamed yellow potatoes with the delicious sauce and we’re looking forward to leftovers tomorrow over pasta. I used a cookie scoop as my measure and put them directly on the silicone sheet, baked them at 400 in my convection oven for 9 minutes each side. FYI, Portland makes a vegan Worcestershire sauce, too!
Glad you loved it!
It was tasty, but the lentils did not cook using the recommended 20 minutes until all the water evaporated. The lentils were still crunchy. Next time I’ll cook the lentils separate in more water. Overall the texture was great, not mushy but just right. I added more sauteed mushrooms to the gravy.
I cheated and used premade vegan meatballs, and I didn’t have oat milk so I used 1 c vegetable broth with the coconut milk. DELISH! And so fast and easy the cheater way 🙂 My meat eating fiancé adored it.
Just made the gravy. Hade some “meat” balls already. Added some mushrooms too. Very good!
Hi, I cooked this recipe today and it turned out amazing. In the beginning the minced “meat” looked ugly, felt mushy and smelled terrible but I ended up with 29 beautifully crunchy meatballs. The gravy was just enough for the batch and didn’t taste like coconut at all. The only changes I made were to replace the amino with 2 tbs of plain flour, and the Worcestershire sauce ( we don’t have vegan in Romania) with soy sauce mixed with balsamic vinegar cream. Have to say though that it took me 3 hours too cook it instead of 45 mins, not even counting the amount of dishes left. Thank you A LOT for this decadent recipe. Definitely coming back to your website.
We all love these, having them for the third time tonight, We have them with a rich tomato sauce and spaghetti. My son says he loves them, he hates mushrooms and will not eat them, I haven’t told him what the ingredients are yet!
I pressure cooked my lentils….and to anyone reading this..cut back on the water if so. My batter was too wet. I added more oat flour and upped some spices to compensate. That said, my meatballs ended up more like pucks than spheres. They tasted pretty good.
Also, I had alot of leftover gravy, and upclycled it by adding pureed cooked green peas to make soup. It was delicious, as in “lick the bowl” tasty.
Hi, Karissa! I’m wondering about the comments saying that the meatballs are too dry – what kind of oven do you have? The reason I’m asking this is that gas/propane ovens tend to have more of a moist heat than electric ovens, and I’m wondering if this might be part of the problem others are having. It might also be in the way they are preparing the mushrooms – fresh mushrooms that are freshly washed will retain a lot more moisture than mushrooms bought pre-sliced and allowed to sit in the refrigerator prior to use, for example.
Anyway, just some thoughts – the old “your mileage may vary” thing. Can’t wait to try this – Swedish meatballs were always one of my absolute favorite comfort foods growing up, and one of my more heavily searched-for items after adopting a vegan lifestyle (and that gravy sounds phenomenal!!!)
I have an electric oven. I very much appreciate your input! I updated the recipe and reduced the amount of oats so hopefully that solves the issue for most.
The gravy was *uh-mazing*. I used oat milk, which masked the coconut flavor nicely to deliver a creamy and heavenly sauce. I had to double the arrowroot & water to get the gravy to an acceptable texture.
I had high hopes for the meatballs but they were just… ok. Quite dry and underwhelming flavor wise. I had to *drench* the meatballs in sauce to enjoy them. I also didn’t find them that palatable when packed up for meal prep and eaten later on.
This recipe has a lot of potential, but ultimately, needs a more testing and refinement to shine. Maybe a higher portion of mushrooms:lentils or the addition of avocado could be helpful. Perhaps a flax or chia egg would even do the trick.
Though I will not be making this recipe again, I’m looking forward to trying others on your site 🙂 All the best!
I made theses for a friend’s birthday dinner and they were delicious. I served them with homemade egg noodles. They were filling without being heavy. I will definitely be making them again.
And now I have one more thing I need to purchase – a pasta maker. I used to have one, and I loved it, but it was cheaply made and broke after the third use, sadly. Will definitely be getting a new one that has metal components! I LOVED having fresh, homemade pasta.
Won’t be doing egg noodles though since I’m vegan, but replacing that with JUST egg? I wonder how that’d turn out? Hmm…vegan tagliatelle…
These meatballs were inedible. They tasted disgusting. I’m a good cook and rarely serve food my boys won’t eat. We gave them to the dog and even he didn’t like them much. The gravy was also awful, Despite the masking of the coconut flavor with stock and salt, It was still pretty disgusting. I will continue searching for good vegan meatballs. But these should be taken off the site.
I appreciate your honesty. However, I won’t be removing them from the site as this recipe has been rated 4.5/5 stars by 30 people.
I haven’t tried these yet but I have to say thank you for your website. I’m a brand new Vegan and I’ve already found some amazing recipe ideas! So Fiona did not care for this particular recipe. I too have recipes that I make that don’t turn out as expected. I say move on …but there is no reason for being so hateful. Keep on helping with your website. I for one love it and appreciate your hard work. Have a great day!
Fiona, why do you have to be mean about it? So you didn’t like the recipe, why spend the energy writing such cutting words, knowing you will purposefully hurt this girl’s feelings? Before speaking (or posting) ask yourself these three questions: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? Let this be your guide as to how you speak your truth.
Worcestershire sauce is not vegan.
Excerpt from the blog post: “There are vegan Worcestershire sauce brands out there. Annie’s is one brand, which I have found at Whole Foods and Earth Fare. The Kroger brand is also vegan if you have one near you.”
Annie’s-brand Worcestershire Sauce ingredient list:
Water, *Apple Cider Vinegar, *Molasses, *Soy Sauce (Water, *Soybean, Salt, *Wheat, *Alcohol), *Cane Sugar, *Tamarind, Sea Salt, *Cornstarch, Xanthan Gum, *Garlic, *Onion, *Clove, *Chili Pepper. *Organic Ingredients.
Looks vegan to me. Not an anchovy in sight. Not the only brand out there that is vegan, for that matter. In fact, here on Karissa’s Vegan Kitchen, you can find a recipe to make your own! Hell, even Martha Stewart has a recipe.
Check the ingredients before making assumptions.
Thanks for your hard work on developing these vegan recipes.
How much is a “can” of coconut milk? My cans are 13.5 oz and I think it threw the recipe off for the gravy.
That’s the size I used.
Hi, I wanted to ask how the recipe is gluten free if there are oats used in the dough?
Thank you, Lolo
Oats are naturally gluten-free, the issue is contamination. Make sure to look for the gluten-free label on oats. Bob’s Red Mill is one brand that has GF oats.
The gravy was good once I added salt but the meatballs were dry and bland. :(. I used coconut aminos instead of soy so not sure if that was why…oh well.
Can these be frozen.
Yes, that should work fine!
Hi, can I fry them in the pan instead of bake them in the oven?
Thank you
Marie
Hi, Marie – I have not tried frying them in a pan so I am not 100% how they would turn out. Let me know if you give that method a try.
These look so amazing. I have to try them soon.