Vegan Dawood Basha. A classic Lebanese meatball stew with a spiced tomato-based sauce. A hearty meal that’s full of flavour and is perfect served with some vermicelli rice.
Ingredients of Note
Lebanese 7 Spice is a wonderful mix of seven spices that brings a warmth to dishes and packs them full of flavour. There are a couple of things to watch out for with spice mixes. Firstly there is a Japanese spice mix called 7 Spice. This is not the same thing. It’s the Lebanese 7 Spice you should look for. It is sometimes called Baharat.
You should also look at the ingredients, spice mixes found in major supermarkets usually add salt to them and aren’t usually very good. Try and find a middle eastern store near you or find somewhere online. Getting an authentic spice mix makes a huge difference to the final flavour of the dish and is well worth finding.
Serving Vegan Dawood Basha
This Lebanese meatball stew is great served with some fluffy white rice and garnished with toasted pinenuts and freshly chopped parsley. If you want to go the extra mile consider making some middle eastern vermicelli rice. We have an easy recipe for some and it makes a wonderful side dish for any stew.
Vegan Dawood Basha
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 2 tablespoons milled flaxseed
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 small red onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 medium green chilli
- 200 g mushrooms
- 50 g oats
- 50 g breadcrumbs
- 400 g can black beans
- 2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses
- 1 teaspoon Lebanese 7 spice
- Pinch ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Sauce
- 1 large carrot
- 2 medium potatoes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 white onions diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 teaspoons Lebanese 7 spice
- 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
- 200 ml vegetable stock
- 50 g frozen green peas
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- 4 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- Salt
- Freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
Meatballs
- Add the milled flaxseeds and water to a bowl and mix to hydrate the flaxseeds. Set aside for 5 minutes.
- Preheat an oven to 180°C
- Roughly chop the onion, garlic and green chilli, add to a blender or food processor. Clean and roughly chop the mushrooms and also add to the blender.
- Add the milled flax seeds when they have been sitting for at least 5 minutes together with the rest of the ingredients for the meatballs. Blend into a roughly homogeneous texture. Some lumps of mushrooms or beans are ok. The mixture should easily form into a ball when rolled in a spoon or in your hands.
- Wet your hand then roll the meatball mixture into 20 evenly sized meatballs using roughly a heaped tablespoon for each.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the meatballs on it.
- Place in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden all over. Turn the meatballs halfway through cooking.
- The sauce can be made while the meatballs are cooking.
Sauce
- Peel and wash the carrot and potatoes. Cut into bite-sized pieces. Place them in a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are just fork-tender. Around 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and set aside until later.
- Heat up the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Once hot add the diced onions and sauté until they are soft and translucent, around 8 minutes.
- Add the garlic and continue to sauté for 1 minute.
- Now add the tomato puree and sauté until the puree goes a deep red colour and begins to caramelise, around 2 minutes.
- Add the bay leaf, Lebanese 7 spice, chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Cover and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened, around 15 minutes.
- Add the frozen green peas, cooked potatoes and carrots, pomegranate molasses and cooked meatballs. Stir to combine everything and continue to cook for 5 minutes until the peas are fully cooked.
- Serve with vermicelli rice and the toasted pine nuts and parsley as a garnish.
