These Vegan Mushroom Meatballs in pepper sauce make for an easy and delicious, gluten-free meatless meal. Make these baked mushroom meatballs for a quick dinner in under an hour! Lower carb option available.
This mushroom meatballs recipe has been waiting for you!! I tested, tested, tested and goodness gracious I couldn’t be happier with the final results. MEATY MEATLESS MEATBALLS made with real vegetables. Get your party pants on because we’re going to celebrate home cooking made simple. I may be biased, but I think the whole family will love this. Yes, even the picky eaters.
Prep Tips for the Best Meatballs
These prep tips set you up for success before you even turn on the oven.
- Use Toasted or Dry-Roasted Nuts – Choose dry-roasted or lightly toasted almonds and/or cashews for the best texture. Toasted nuts grind into a finer meal and help create a firmer meatball base without needing extra flour.
- Let the Flax Egg Set – After mixing ground flaxseed and water, give it time (about 5 minutes) to thicken. A properly set flax egg (egg substitute) acts as a reliable binder and keeps your meatballs from falling apart.
- Blend in Stages– To keep a balanced texture, process the sautéed veggies separately from the nuts and flour. You want a soft paste—not a purée—for the mushrooms, so pulse and scrape the sides a few times for control.
- Chill the Mixture Before Shaping– If the mixture feels too soft or sticky, refrigerate it for 20–30 minutes before rolling. Chilling firms everything up and makes forming uniform meatballs much easier.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Below is an overview of the ingredients and instructions to make these meatless meatballs. Please be sure to scroll down to the recipe card for the complete details!
- Flax eggs – ground flax meal and filtered water
- Nuts – almonds, pistachios, or walnuts (toasted or roasted work best)
- Veggies – red onion and mushrooms
- Flour – gluten-free flour or oat flour (can also use chickpea flour)
- Nutritional yeast
- Garlic
- Tamari soy sauce
- Seasonings – fresh basil, dried parsley, paprika, onion salt, salt and pepper
- Oil or vegan butter – for the pan
Substitutions
- You can replace the spices with seasoning blends if you’d prefer. To do this, leave out the paprika, parsley, and onion salt and replace with 2 teaspoons Italian & herb or BBQ spice mix.
- Coconut aminos can be used in place of the tamari if you are sensitive to soy.
What to Serve with Mushroom Meatballs
My favorite way to serve this dish is by smothering the mushroom meatballs with finger-licking good red pepper sauce. The creamy sauce adds an extra punch of flavor to the already juicy and delicious plant-based meatballs.
Other sauces that are great with this dish are my Nomato sauce and Cauliflower Alfredo sauce!
How to make vegan Mushroom meatballs
Prep Tip – If you’re starting with raw nuts, a quick toast in a skillet will do the trick. To roast raw nuts, just add them to a dry pan over medium-high heat, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes—until they’re fragrant and lightly golden, but not burnt
- Start by making your flax eggs. Combine the flax and water together in a small bowl using a whisk or a spoon. Set aside to thicken.
- Add the nuts to the bowl of a blender or food processor and let that baby run and blend until you get a fine nut meal. Mix with the flour in a small bowl and set aside.
- Next, add some oil to a large pan over medium heat. When the oil starts to shimmer in the pan, add the red onion and sauté until soft and fragrant.
- Add the sliced mushrooms and continue to cook until those have softened and are lightly browned.
- Cover the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the lid, season with salt and pepper, and stir again. Turn off the heat and let cool for 5-10 minutes.
Cooling the veggies keeps your mixture from getting too wet or sticky.
- Wait until the mixture cools down, then transfer everything from the pan to the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add the minced garlic and blend everything to make a paste. You may need to stop and scrape the sides a few times.
- Transfer the paste to a mixing bowl. Then, simply stir in the flour/nut mixture. Add the tamari, nutritional yeast, spices, and herbs and stir together. Then mix in the flax egg.
- Scoop evenly sides balls from the mixture and gently finish forming with your hands. If the mixture is too soft, chill for about 30 minutes and try again.
- Place the meatballs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Make sure to space them out so they aren’t touching.
- Bake at 400 degrees F for 30-35 minutes. For smaller meatballs, only cook for 25-30 minutes.
- Once the meatballs are done baking, add to the pan of warmed Pepper Sauce or sauce of choice. Mix and keep warm until ready to serve. Serve and garnish with basil and cracked pepper.
Tip – Garnished with hemp seeds for a nutty topping that looks similar to parmesan! Super tasty and it adds a boost of omega 3’s.
Storage Tips
These meatballs freeze beautifully, making them ideal for meal prep.
- To freeze before baking:
Roll the mixture into balls and place them on a baking sheet. Freeze until firm, then transfer to a freezer-safe container or bag. When ready to bake, add an extra 5–8 minutes to the total baking time (no need to thaw). - To freeze after baking:
Let the cooked meatballs cool completely, then store in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. Reheat in the oven at 350ºF until warmed through, about 15–20 minutes. - To store in fridge:
Keep leftover meatballs in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat in the oven, skillet, or microwave as needed.
Vegan Mushroom Meatballs Recipe (Gluten-Free)
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 10–12 meatballs 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Make this baked vegan meatball recipe for a quick dinner in under an hour! Lower carb option available.
Ingredients
For the Mushroom Meatballs
- 1 Tablespoon ground flax meal + 3 Tablespoons water
- 1 Tablespoon light olive oil or vegan butter
- ⅔ cup chopped red onion or 1 large shallot
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
- kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 cup roasted nuts (almonds or toasted walnut halves). See notes for toasting tips.
- ⅔ cup gluten-free flour or oat flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic (~3 cloves garlic)
- 1 Tablespoon gluten-free soy sauce or coconut aminos
- 2–3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 3 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil + extra for garnish
- ½ teaspoon paprika (see notes)
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon onion salt
- 2 cups Red Pepper Sauce (or sauce of choice)
- Garnish – fresh chopped basil and cracked pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the ground flax and water. Let it sit for a few minutes until it thickens into an egg-like consistency.
- In a large frying pan, heat 1 Tablespoon oil over medium heat. Cook and stir onions until fragrant and softened, around 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and sauté until lightly browned and softened. Cover and cook on medium low for 5 minutes, mixing a couple times. Season with salt and pepper and mix again. Set aside to cool for at least 5-10 minutes.
- While the mushrooms are cooling, add the roasted nuts to a food processer and blend until a fine nut meal is formed. Transfer to a bowl and mix in flour.
- Next place the mushrooms, onion, and garlic in the food processor or blender. Blend until a soft paste is formed, stopping to scrape the sides a few times.
- To the flour bowl, add the mushroom paste, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, basil, paprika, parsley and onion salt. Stir until combined.
- Mix in the flax egg. If the batter is too soft, place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
- Using a cookie scoop and then rolling by hand, shape the batter into meatballs. Place on the lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 20 minutes then turn the meatballs over and place back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.
- While the vegan mushroom meatballs are baking, heat the pepper sauce in a large saucepan (can use the same one from the mushrooms) over low heat.
- Once the meatballs are done baking, add to the pan of warmed Pepper Sauce or sauce of choice. Mix and keep warm until ready to serve. Serve and garnish with basil and cracked pepper.
- Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Notes
Substitutes – For a lower carb option replace the oat flour with chickpea flour. Use 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning to replace the paprika, parsley, and onion salt.
Cooking Tip – To roast raw nuts, add the nuts to a skillet on medium high heat, stirring often, for 5 minutes or just until you can smell them toasting but not burning. Once cooled, transfer to a food processor or blender and blend until a fine nut meal is formed.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 30
- Category: main
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: italian american
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 meatball
- Calories: 108
- Sugar: 1.3 g
- Sodium: 232.5 mg
- Fat: 6.9 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 8.6 g
- Fiber: 2.9 g
- Protein: 4.4 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
LOVE this recipe. The meatballs are out of this world with flavor. I have made it with nutritional yeast and with parmesan cheese and both ways are great. How many meatballs are you classifying as a serving?
Oh yay! I’m glad you enjoyed it! I usually count 2-3 meatballs as a serving. But I did make them rather large. Hope that helps!
I made these tonight. They were delicious!! I used roasted cashews since that was the only nuts I had and it worked out well. Can I freeze them once they are baked?
So glad you loved them! Sure, you should be fine to freeze them once they are baked.
Can I use eggs instead of flax eggs? Will that change anything about the instructions?
I haven’t tried it, but worth a shot! FOr sure! You just might need more flour to bind
Do you think i can take out the nuts? Maybe replace it with quick oat or panko?
I think oats would work just fine! Keep me posted.
This recipe for vegan GF mushroom meatballs looks delicious. I am allegic to flax, any suggestions for substitutes? Thanks.
You could use more chia seed, ground! No prob! Does that work?
These meatballs are perfect! Love the flavor of the mushrooms in them!
Thank you, Nancy! Glad you loved them!
I am not able to find the recipe for the red pepper sauce. Any suggestions?
That is so strange. The pepper sauce is here. Can you see it now? Let me know if not and I will add to card. https://www.cottercrunch.com/baked-salmon-with-roasted-red-pepper-sauce/
Good to know that works too! I learn so much from you as well! Keep it up great post.
Thank you!
I am loving that these are gluten free! The red pepper sauce sounds incredibly good over the meatballs!
Thank you, Suzy!
I’m so intrigued by these! I love your recipes so much. Thank you!
Thank you, Lauren!
Looks delicious, and I would love to try. The link to the red pepper sauce takes me to a page with no recipe. Has it been moved?
oh strange! It shows link on my end. It’s this recipe. IT’s linked with the salmon. Does that make sense?
https://www.cottercrunch.com/baked-salmon-with-roasted-red-pepper-sauce/