Vegan Meatball Italian Sub
This delightfully messy vegan meatball sub is bursting with flavor, featuring hearty plant-based meatballs and rich marinara sauce on a soft sub roll. It's the perfect comfort food that's both satisfying and completely plant-based!
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 307kcal
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 2 cups cooked bulgur
- 1.5 cups whole wheat bread crumbs (equals 2-3 slices of bread)
- 1.5 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup fire-roasted tomatoes (with juice drained and reserved)
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 sticks celery diced
- 1/2 green pepper diced
- 3/4 cup carrot diced
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon dried sage
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- sea salt to your taste
Sandwich
- oil-free hoagie loafs
- veggies such as lettuce spinach, tomatoes, onions
- Easy Cashew Mozzarella Cheese optional
- marinara or barbecue sauce
Instructions
Meatball Instructions
- Line a large baking pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350. Parchment paper makes clean up so much easier with this recipe.
- Cook bulgur according to package directions. It cooks in the microwave, on the stove, or in a rice cooker. The microwave only takes about 7 minutes.
- Dice all veggies--onion, garlic, celery, bell pepper, and walnuts.
- Mix all ingredients in a very large bowl. You can use a spoon, but I prefer to use my hands to thoroughly blend ingredients.
- Form into balls and place on a baking sheet. If the mixture seems too wet, add a few more oats. If it seems too dry, add a little bit of the juice drained from tomatoes or water. These should hold together to form balls pretty well.
- Bake at 350°F for approximately 25-30 minutes.
- To make these meatballs even firmer, cook a day ahead and refrigerate. When they are reheated, the texture is very firm and the flavors have had time to marry and are fabulous.
Sandwich Assembly Instructions
- Start by stacking your favorite sandwich veggies as the first layer. I use fresh spinach leaves, tomato, and purple onion slices.
- Next, pile on the freshly baked vegan meatballs. I also added a few slices of my Easy Cashew Mozzarella Cheese, but that is completely optional.
- Lastly, smother the sandwich ingredients with your favorite marinara sauce. Options are included in the article above.
- Now, this vegan meatball sandwich is ready to serve for dinner, a party, or game day food with friends. Believe me, everyone is going to love it!
Video
Notes
Tips & Suggestions:
I have included step-by-step photos and directions above to ensure your first attempt will be successful.
- Make firmer- The vegan meatballs firm up even more after refrigerating them.
- Make them gluten-free- Subbed the bulgur with buckwheat groats, quinoa, brown rice, and barley for gluten-free options. Just be mindful to use gluten-free breadcrumbs and oats, as well as tamari in place of the soy sauce for the whole recipe.
- Marinara options- A classic marinara or tomato-based sauce works best for vegan spaghetti and meatballs. If you would like to make your own, we have a great oil-free marinara sauce recipe on this website. For store-bought options, the Aldi discount grocery store has an organic oil-free marinara brand called Simply Nature. Another great oil-free marinara is the DeLallo Fat-Free Brand. It can be ordered on Amazon and delivered straight to your door. I actually love this particular brand.
Nutrition
Calories: 307kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 10.2g | Fat: 5.3g | Fiber: 11g