— ly brod

Okay. So, um, you know, I'll first touch upon the term vegan, and then I'll talk, uh, a little bit more about meatballs here. And this is kinda an interesting topic after all. So, uh, when we talk about something as being vegan, uh, it will be 100% plant-based, and if it's not 100% plant-based, then it's not vegan. So even if it's 99% plant-based and 1% animal-based, then it's not vegan. Okay? Um, and so I, I, I really want, um, uh, to sort of shine the light, uh, on this term, uh, that is used quite a bit, uh, in society these days. So in order to make, um, a, a meatball that is more plant strong or more plant leaning, then we can cut back on the meat portion and replace, uh, you know, the, the meat that we removed with other plant-based ingredients. And, um, you know, that could be, um, cooked potato that's been mashed. Uh, it could be, uh, you mentioned garlic and onions, uh, parsley. I think those are great. Now, in terms of the example that you provided la I think maybe a starting point would be to pull out the eggs and cheese, which are animal-based products. And then you can, uh, replace, uh, some of that, uh, you know, with, uh, bread that's been soaked in a liquid. It could be water, it could be stock, uh, it could be a plant-based milk, um, in order to provide some flavor and, uh, significantly a tenderizing effect for the meatballs. Uh, an important thing to keep in mind is when you add these items to the meat, um, cut them up into pretty small pieces so that as you make this mixture, the binding effect of the meat is evenly dispersed throughout the mixture. Okay? And, um, then I think you're, you know, you're, you're, you're often running, uh, with a, a pretty nice product. In addition, think about spices. Feel free to get additional herbs, you know, into your blend. You know, you mentioned parsley. There are more aromatic herbs like thyme and oregano, um, margarin and, uh, you know, basil. You know, all of these can be used very nicely in meatballs, if you like those flavors. And then try out some ground spices as well. And, uh, you can try out any sort of combination that you like, go easy in the beginning as you learn to use spices and figure out which ones are more pungent than others, and how they act, uh, and react to heat, uh, during the cooking process. Okay? So, uh, you know, think about bread, think about potatoes, you know, replacing some of those other animal-based products that you would remove from your recipe here.