How to Make the Ultimate Vegan Meatball Sub
This recipe creates the most delicious vegan meatball sub ever! In this post, I share how to make vegan meatballs from scratch, using Impossible Foods vegan beef, and how to create the perfect vegan meatball sub. If you’re looking for a flavorful, easy, quick, and comforting dish, I think you will love this vegan meatball sub!
Let’s talk about my vegan Impossible meatballs for a moment.
For this vegan meatball recipe, I chose to use Impossible Food’s vegan beef. It comes in a twelve-ounce package, raw, just like real beef. It’s quite crazy if you’ve never seen it in real life before, as it looks, smells, and tastes nearly JUST like the real beef.
I then jazz the meat up by mixing in fresh onion, garlic, parsley, basil, vegan parmesan, bread crumbs, and a few seasonings. I then portion and roll it into balls and sear them in a pan until crispy all around. Making the meatballs takes me less than 10 minutes!
The Impossible burger meatballs are insanely juicy and flavorful. If you love onion, garlic, and herbs, then I think you will be quite pleased. These meatballs are great in dishes other than this meatball sub as well, of course! An obvious and point-blank dish would be spaghetti and meatballs!
My recipe creates a DELICIOUS yet straightforward vegan meatball sub!
For the bread, I usually opt for one that is soft but slightly chewy, such as a ciabatta-baguette. However, a softer bread, like a hoagie roll, would work great, too! Just try to avoid a bread that is ultra-tough and chewy, as well as one that is ultra-soft. Aim for one that has a texture right smack dab in the middle!
I then cut the baguette open and snuggly lay the meatballs inside. Then I top the meatballs with a generous portion of homemade marinara. A good quality marinara is just as important as having good meatballs, in my opinion. I ALWAYS make my Super Flavorful, Quick, & Easy Marinara because it is just as the title suggests. I’m obsessed and will always recommend making it over buying a store-bought one.
To finish the sub off, I sprinkle over a hefty blend of shredded vegan mozzarella and parmesan. I pop the vegan meatball sub under the broiler for a couple of minutes to make the cheese melty and bubbly. If I’m feeling fancy, I’ll garnish it with chopped fresh parsley. I’m telling you, this sandwich is incredible and you should make it ASAP!
If you make this tasty vegan meatball sub, don’t forget to post a picture to Instagram, tag me @chefsummerstorm, and #gardengrub so I can see your recreation!
How to Make the Ultimate Vegan Meatball Sub
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 pound favorite raw vegan ground beef (I used Impossible Food's 12 ounce package of burger meat- it's not quite 1 pound, but it's close enough)
- 1/4 cup yellow onion, small diced
- 2 tbsp fresh garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 tbsp fresh basil leaves, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
- 2 tbsp panko bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup vegan parmesan, finely shredded
- 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp olive oil
For 1 Large Meatball Sub You Will Need (Serves 1 to 2 people)
- 1 small soft baguette (I used a 10 inch ciabatta-baguette)
- 6 vegan meatballs
- 3/4 cup marinara (I used my homemade marinara from this blog)
- 1/2 cup vegan mozzarella, shredded (I used Daiya's)
- 1/4 cup vegan parmesan, finely shredded (I used Follow Your Heart's)
- Optional garnish: pinch of fresh parsley, finely chopped
Instructions
Meatballs
- Add all of the ingredients, except for the olive oil, into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Mix this with your hands until evenly combined.
- Divide the meat mixture into portions that are 2 tablespoons each. Make them flat tablespoon portions; do not make rounded out or hefty amounts. Roll them into balls. You should have about 11 meatballs.
- Now, place a large saute pan over medium heat. Once hot, add in the olive oil. Tilt the pan around the ensure the entire bottom is covered in the oil.
- Now, add in the meatballs and cook them for 11 to 13 minutes, turning them over and around every couple of minutes to make them evenly browned and crispy.
How to Build & Cook 1 Large Meatball Sub
- Turn the broiler on to medium/medium-high.
- Slice open your bread of choice. Lay it on a baking sheet.
- Line your desired amount of meatballs inside the bread.
- Top the meatballs off with the marinara sauce.
- Toss the shredded mozzarella and parmesan together in a bowl and then sprinkle it evenly over the sauced meatballs.
- Place the baking sheet with the sub on it on the middle oven rack and broil for 2-4 minutes, or until the cheese has completely melted. Keep a close eye on it, so the top edges of the bread don't burn!
- Garnish with a pinch of finely chopped fresh parsley!
Tiparooskis
Welcome to my tip section of the vegan meatball sub recipe! Here I provide my top tips to help you perfect the recipe. Sometimes, I also give substitute suggestions that I think you may find helpful.
- Can’t find the Impossible Foods burger meat in a store near you? Luckily, they sell it online! If you’re unable to purchase it online, you will have to find another similar vegan beef substitute. Make sure the replacement is raw and not already partially cooked. This meat needs to be raw so it can bind with the rest of the ingredients and cook properly.
- In the recipe instructions, I share how to build one relatively large sub. With that being said, you may need to make some ingredient adjustments according to the size of the bread you use. My ciabatta-baguette fits six meatballs perfectly inside, but if you’re using a much smaller, more personal-sized bread, you may only be able to fit three to four meatballs. So, then I recommend adding on top a bit less marinara and cheese. Just use your best judgment!
- If you’d like, instead of using store-bought vegan parmesan, you can use nutritional yeast. I had done this several times when I didn’t feel like spending the extra money on parmesan. I will say, I prefer the meatballs’ flavor with store-bought vegan parmesan, but they taste delicious with nutritional yeast too!
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