While it's true that these meatballs aren't exactly a good fit for pasta and marinara, you can put them in wraps, tacos, burritos, and even make them into meatball sliders. They'd be delicious in a taco salad or in a bowl full of rice and fajita veggies. But if you don't want to mess with all of that, just serve 'em up as is with a little salsa, sour cream, or smoky garlic aioli.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup old-fashioned oats
- 1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained (or 1 ½ cups cooked black beans)
- ⅓ cup frozen corn kernels
- ¼ cup thinly sliced green onions
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons salsa, tomato-based
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 egg, beaten
- Salsa, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Put the oats in the small bowl of a food processor and process until coarsely ground—it shouldn't be flour-like, but there should be very few whole oats left when you're finished.
- Place the black beans in a medium bowl. Use a fork to partially mash them, then fold in the oats, corn, green onions, garlic, and salsa. Sprinkle the cumin, chili powder, oregano, paprika, and cayenne over the top of the mixture and then stir them in too. Add salt and pepper to taste, then mix in the beaten egg.
- Spray a mini-muffin tin with oil. Form the black bean mixture into 12 balls and place each in a muffin cup. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the tops of the meatballs are dry to the touch and just beginning to brown. Let the meatballs cool for about 5 minutes, then carefully run a butter knife along the edges of the muffin cups to loosen them and pop them out of the muffin tin. Serve with salsa or in wraps, burritos, as meatball sliders or subs, etc.
Nutrition (estimated per serving)
Calories: 27kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 14mgSodium: 38mgPotassium: 64mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 200IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 15mgIron: 1mg
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liz says
can u use white beans as well?
Kiersten Frase says
I've never tried it, but it should work just fine.
Emily says
This looks absolutely delicious! I was thinking of doing it as a pasta dish. What sauce would you recommend because I'm not sure if a tomato one would go. Or do you think it would? Thanks!
Kiersten Frase says
You could do a cilantro pesto or an enchilada sauce. I've even tossed pasta with salsa and veggies - that would work too!
Heather says
salsa is an amazing pasta sauce!
hope says
Do these freeze well?
sos says
Just made this! They turned out fantastic! Instead of fresh garlic, I subbed 1/2 t garlic powder and added 1/2 t onion powder. We tossed these in mushroom/garlic pasta sauce and made meatball subs!! Thank you!
Kiersten says
I'm glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Joshua Kreais says
Just made this tonight. Except we didn't have any salsa, so I just subbed an equal amount of ketchup. They were superb! Even my twin five year olds devoured them (I also cut the cayenne pepper down to 1/4 tsp, because I knew the youngsters would be eating then too)
Thank you so much for this recipe. Will be making this again soon!
Marcella says
THANKS FOR THE MINI MUFFIN TIN IDEA WITH THESE, GREAT IDEA!!!!!!!!!! i'M GOING TO MAKE THESE FOR A TACO SALAD, FUN!!
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