September has always been my favorite month. Of course it used to be slightly tainted by the fact that it meant the end of summer vacation and the beginning of school, but now I get to work 40 hours a week year round with hardly any vacation…but at least I don’t have to do homework! The main reason September is so awesome is because it’s my birthday month. Keeping with tradition, Jeremiah has already ordered me a new pair of shoes. I’m especially anxious to get these shoes because they are Kandals, a new vegan line of canvas shoes that—get this—smell like strawberries.
The second reason September is so great is because autumn starts on the 22nd. I’m ready for it to cool down and see the leaves change. But most of all, I am ready to be rid of all those spiders outside that insist on making webs across both of our doors so that every morning I have to warily open the screen door, broom in hand, just waiting for a fat spider to fall in my hair. Six in the morning is too early to be spider hunting; they need to do whatever they do when it gets cold and stop terrorizing us!
Anyway, food-wise, September seems like a sandwich month to me, and Jeremiah and I love us some sandwiches. So I’ve got a simple comfort food for you this month- a wheatball sub. These wheatballs are almost too easy to make and they freeze perfectly. You could even skip the sandwich part and cover the wheatballs in a sweet and sour sauce to serve on game day. And need I say it? Spaghetti and wheatballs, duh! So don’t despair. If you’re already counting down the days ‘til Christmas break, just remember all the amazing food that fall brings and how nice it’ll be when you’re not too heat exhausted to eat it.
Wheatballs
Found in Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson
Makes about 28 wheatballs
- 1 ½ cups cooked or 1 (15.5-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup chopped white mushrooms
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 T minced fresh parsley
- 2 T tomato paste
- 2 T soy sauce
- 1 T water
- 1 ½ T olive oil, plus more for greasing baking sheet
- ½ cup dry bread crumbs
- ½ cup wheat gluten flour
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp oregano
- ½ tsp paprika
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and oil a baking sheet.
In a food processor, pulse the chickpeas, mushrooms, garlic, and parsley until coarsely ground. Add remaining ingredients and pulse to combine.
Scrape mixture into a bowl and knead mixture with your hands until well blended. Pinch off a small piece of the mixture and roll into a 1 ½ inch ball and place on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining mixture.
Bake wheatballs for 25 minutes, turning them halfway through.
To make sandwich, top both halves of a sliced baguette with shredded mozzarella Daiya cheese and place under the broiler for a few minutes. Meanwhile, heat up some of your favorite marinara sauce—we like Field Day pasta sauces. When cheese is melted, spoon a good amount of sauce onto bottom baguette, next add as many wheatballs as you like, top with more sauce, cover with other baguette half. Perfect.
