Recipe: Zero Waste Veggie Balls

Recipe: Zero Waste Veggie Balls Heinin Zhang

When lockdown began in the UK and around the world, supermarkets ran low on essential ingredients. As shoppers rushed to stock up on pasta, flour and tinned food, this sudden change in purchasing behaviour exposed the weaknesses of our ‘just-in-time’ food supply chain. Faced with these shortages, many of us have had to get inventive in the kitchen to make our ingredients go further, and to ensure that nothing goes to waste. Heinin Zhang graduated from LSE with a degree in Philosophy and Economics in 2014, and is the co-founder of ‘Yhangry’, a start-up food business which aims to maximise quality time over great food whilst minimising food waste. In this recipe, Heinin shares a perfect solution for using up those tasty odds-and-ends like breadcrumbs and broccoli stalks, which all too often end up in the bin. This recipe for Zero Waste Veggie Balls shows that we can do so much more with what’s in our kitchens than we might realise.

Ingredients based on four portions • 2 tbsp aquafaba (water from canned chickpeas or beans) • 2 tbsp olive oil • Any leftover vegetables, especially stalks of broccoli, cabbage, beetroot, potato etc. • Any beans or other pulses • Breadcrumbs • Oil spray • Spices: cumin, oregano, paprika, salt, pepper Method 1. Whisk the aquafaba 2. Add all the leftover vegetables and beans into a food processor and use the pulse function until everything is chopped finely 3. Mix the processed veg with the aquafaba and combine, adding spices 4. Use hands to form golf-sized bites – shape them with pressure so that they stick together 5. If the texture is too wet, add some flour or breadcrumbs to the mix 6. Put breadcrumbs into a small bowl and coat the veggie balls with breadcrumbs before placing them onto a baking tray 7. Spray or brush the veggie balls with some oil and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees

Photo: Heinin Zhang