- Hey, guys, it's Candice from The Edgy Veg
and today I am going to test out
one of Gaz Oakley's videos from Avant Garde Vegan.
I'm going to test out the meatiest meatballs ever
I think is what it's called.
Yes, the meatiest vegan meatballs ever.
(calm music)
All right, so I saw this video come out
and it's a pretty bold claim from Gaz
to say it's the meatiest vegan meatball ever
and I wanted to give it a try.
Also, I was very curious about the fact
that it has so many ingredients and so many steps
and I wanted to see if I can pull this off.
So I'm gonna check out his video.
I printed out the recipe as well which I will follow
and see if these are in fact the meatiest meatballs ever.
There's a lot of gluten flour involved in this
which makes me excited already and tofu and mushrooms.
Those are like my three favorite things.
So I'm pumped to try this out.
Aw, Gaz is so cute.
He has such a soft calming voice.
It's like literally the complete opposite
of how I do my videos.
All right, look at this kitchen though that they work in.
I need more plants in my kitchen.
He uses his hands a lot like I do which I appreciate.
No, we're not peeling all of it.
No, no, we are not peeling the mushrooms.
So the base of the meatballs is tofu, mushrooms.
It says chestnut mushrooms
but they look like cremini mushrooms
so maybe that's just a UK name for these mushrooms
and then vital wheat gluten.
So all those things are super dense and meaty, high protein.
I'm going to put celery, onion and the mushrooms
that I did not peel into the food processor
and just pulse it until it's blitzed.
So we've got this one stalk of celery and then one onion.
I think I'm going to pulse those first
and then add the mushrooms.
(calm music)
I would have thought we'd have to bake these.
Nope, we're cooking them in oil.
I actually like that a lot more.
I think it'll cook a lot faster.
All right, so we're adding two tablespoons of oil
and I'll let that heat up for a medium heat.
Now we are adding our mushrooms, our celery
and what else did I put in here, onion
along with garlic and we're just going to saute that.
I'm actually gonna switch to a wooden spoon.
All right, now let's add spices.
So we've got some minced garlic, oregano, basil, sage,
fennel seeds, dry rosemary, salt and pepper in a pan.
I mean, I do really appreciate the generous use of spices.
Now we're adding miso and tomato paste.
So these are going to add a nice boldness
to the flavor profile.
I find a lot of vegans are afraid to use spices or salt.
You need flavor.
Now we are deglazing the pan with red wine.
Love the generous use of red wine in this recipe as well
and vegetable stock and bringing that to a simmer.
Is this what it looked like when he did it?
I hope so or else I really screwed up here.
So I'm adding the tofu and then bringing it to a simmer.
It's already at a simmer
so I'm just gonna add the tofu and mix it in.
So it's thickened up a little bit.
Gaz says to turn the heat off so I've done that
and now we have to prepare a mixer.
So I have to get my stand mixer
to I guess fold in the wet ingredients?
No, the dry ingredients.
What am I doing?
All right, I have a stand mixer,
actually the same one that he has in the video
so I'm going to use that.
If you don't have one of these,
you're going to have to knead this by hand and poor you.
This has changed my life in terms of seitan making.
So I have vital wheat gluten
which I'm just going to add to the mixture or the mixer,
mixture.
And now I'm adding this wet tofu, tomato
very carefully I think.
Oh God, this is gonna make a mess.
Just adding this right to the mixer as well
not very delicately I might add.
I'm a lot less graceful and poise than Gaz is
that's for sure.
And I'm going to start slow with a stir
and then kind of speed up as we go along.
Okay, I mean, I mean, it kinda just makes it's own,
I think his are firmer.
I think I need to add more vital wheat gluten.
I'm gonna add a little bit more of vital wheat gluten
and knead it for another 10 minutes
'cause this just seems too soft
and I feel like if I make this into a ball,
it's not really staying in a ball.
I may not have cooked enough liquid out of this.
This is why you also have to use your head
when you're following a recipe
because sometimes you are the problem and not the recipe.
Okay, so I think that's a bit better.
It's a bit thicker, not as, not mushy,
what's the word I'm looking for?
I don't know, just squishy, spongy.
So we're gonna roll this into a lot of meatballs apparently.
Oh, dammit, you do have to roast them.
All right, then I'm going to keep them in this roasting pan.
I only have small roasting pans so I'm going to use two.
I'm excited to try this.
It still seems a bit spongy
so I'm curious to find out how this turns out.
Working with vital wheat gluten though
is super, super finicky.
I find sometimes I make the best seitan ever
and then other times it just, I don't know,
there's too much moisture in the air or something.
It can come out really bizarre.
All right, so I'm heating some oil over medium heat
and then we are going to caramelize
and brown the outside of the meatballs a little bit
right in the pan
and then I guess it's going in the over for 90 minutes.
So hang tight, this is a long one.
Very delicate, you have to be careful with them.
I mean, if you have no patience,
I don't think this is the recipe for you
which I mean, I don't have a lot of patience
but I'm determined to make this and try it.
So the whole point here
is to caramelize the outside a little bit,
create a nice browned, oops, color.
Some of them are not balls anymore.
They're more like little meaty lumps.
I love the use of red wine, vegetable stock, miso.
All of his recipes have good well rounded flavor profiles
so I'm super pumped to try that.
Because I don't have one big roasting pan
and I'm doing two separate ones, I'm going to mix the broth
like the roasting broth in just a bowl
so we're adding some wine, vegetable broth,
tomatoes and then salt, pepper, what's this?
Salt, pepper, thyme and rosemary.
All right, we are going to add the roasting broth
and a bay leaf to each one of these pans
and then cover it with aluminum foil.
Trying to do this as evenly as possible
hence the ladle here.
Oh, my timer, thank you.
It smells amazing in here so I'm super pumped to try this.
Nailed it and now covering it with aluminum foil.
That's how they say it in England.
Being authentic to Gaz himself, aluminum.
It's such a more refined way than aluminum.
Aluminum foil.
Anyway, I'm gonna cover that.
Okay, so I have to preheat my oven to 175 degrees Celsius
which is 350 Fahrenheit.
So we're cooking that for 90 minutes.
That's a long one.
Wow, perfect.
Okay, so he suggest making a quick sauce
and then gives the recipe
so that's what I'm going to make now.
Going to add some oil to a saucepan.
We're going to saute some garlic and onion,
a base of any good sauce.
All right, now I'm adding salt, pepper and thyme.
I think it's thyme.
Is it thyme, yes.
He uses fresh thyme
but not really something I have on hand all the time, thyme.
Seasoning, cook until golden.
What's golden, the onion?
What's golden?
I'm just gonna cook it for a couple minutes
and then I'm deglazing the pan with red wine.
All right, I'm going to add the wine,
a can of chopped tomato and then about half a cup of water.
Adding the tomato puree
and then we are going to bring that to a simmer.
Gaz suggests that he likes to pan fry the meatballs
before he serves them.
I'm just gonna pan fry some of them
and then try the pan fried ones
versus the ones straight out of the oven.
(calm music)
All right, guys, I cooked up some spaghetti.
I have tossed it in the sauce.
I've added the fried meatballs.
I'm also going to try the meatballs on their own
but I'm super pumped to give this a try.
I'm gonna go right for the meatball with the sauce first.
I mean, it looks super meaty.
I think I could have actually cut down
on the liquid a little bit.
It is a little bit spongy
so the next time I make this which I think I will again
because these smell so good, we'll see after I've tasted it.
The tofu mixture I would definitely cook down
a little bit more so it's not as liquidy, not as spongy
'cause I did knead it for about 10 minutes
but all right, let's dig in.
It's really good.
Mm, it's very salty.
It definitely has that umami flavor.
I love salt so it's not too salty for me.
I do think that if you're sensitive to salt,
you might think it's a bit too salty
but I think it's really tasty.
Try the sauce.
Mm, yeah, this is a winner for sure.
It's very good.
There's a little bit of spice in there
and I don't know why that is.
Maybe it's just the pepper,
cooking pepper for a long time maybe
but it is a little bit spicy which I love.
Yeah, I think it's definitely the pepper.
This is definitely an amazing recipe.
Gaz, you killed it.
I have some ideas for how to evolve this
a little bit on my own
and kind of maybe come up with my own version of it too
but I love this.
So this is the pan fried ones.
Without being pan fried though,
I wanted to give a little taste test here on their own.
So this is pan fried and this is not.
Guess we'll go with the not.
Okay.
I think the difference mainly
is because it has a different mouth feel
because of the oil like it kind of coats your mouth
whereas this, it's not dry but it's drier than this.
I don't know, they're both really good either way.
You're tossing them in sauce either way.
So they're delicious.
Actually, I think I like the pan fried one more.
Maybe it just caramelizes it a little bit more.
Well, if you guys liked this recipe,
make sure to give this video a big thumbs up.
If you're new here, hit that Subscribe button.
Let me know in the comment section below
what other chefs' recipes you want me to try
and I will give it a try.
That was a redundant sentence but you know what I mean.
Okay, see ya later, bye.
It's really good like really, really good.