Vegan Olive and Caper Stuffed Millet Balls with lemony soy yogurt.
I hope you are as excited as I am, because I have another undetectably vegan and healthy recipe for you. These hearty and savoury millet balls stuffed with a flavourful olive, caper and basil filling, coated in crispy, seasoned breadcrumbs are perfect for dipping into lemony yogurt, pesto or marinara sauce. These little millet balls make a great budget-friendly snack or a delicious weeknight dinner with a side salad or sweet potato fries. You’ll love them!
This dish is basically the love child of the classic Italian stuffed rice balls, Arancini and the sweet Hungarian quark balls, Túrógombóc. One of the best thing about this recipe, besides that it’s super easy to make, is that it’s totally customisable. In my savoury, oil-free and of course veganized version I used olives, capers and basil as a filling, but you can of course use sun-dried tomatoes, roasted peppers, artichokes, vegan cheese, tofu ricotta or whatever you have in your fridge as a filling. You can season the millet base with fresh or dry herbs, chili powder, tomato paste or you can make it extra creamy with a little bit of nut butter. Same goes for the breadcrumbs, don’t be shy with the seasoning there! But in case you don’t want to use store-bought gluten-free breadcrumbs you can also use oats or finely chopped nuts and seeds as a coating.
If you try this recipe, let me know! I would highly appreciate if you could leave a comment and rate it. Also don’t forget to take a picture and tag it on Instagram (use the hashtag #greenevi) or post it on Facebook! I love seeing what you come up with! ♥︎
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Olive and Caper Stuffed Millet Balls
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 15 balls 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup of millet
- 1 cup of plant milk of your choice (I used coconut milk)
- 1,5 cups of vegetable broth (or water)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp basil
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
- 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (use GF if needed)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- salt, pepper
For the filling:
- 2/3 cup of pitted green olives
- 1/3 cup of caper
- 1/2 cup of fresh basil
- 1/2 lemon, juice
- 1 green onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- salt, pepper
To serve
- 2/3 cup of unsweetened soy or coconut yogurt
- 1 tsp mustard
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/2 lemon, juice
- 1 tsp chopped fresh parsley
- salt, pepper
Instructions
- Rinse millet under running water, then drain and add to a pot with milk, broth, minced garlic, basil and salt. Bring to a boil, then cover and let simmer until millet is tender, about 20 minutes. Set aside until cool enough to handle.
- Meanwhile toast breadcrumbs, garlic and onion powder in a non-stick skillet, stirring or tossing often, for about 5-8 minutes, until breadcrumbs have browned. Season with salt and pepper.
- For the filling add olives, caper, fresh basil, lemon juice, onion, garlic, salt and pepper to a food processor and pulse for a few times. The filling should be well combined but still chunky.
- Once millet is cold enough to handle, add nutritional yeast, smoked and sweet paprika to it and mix well.
- With damp hands form the mixture into medium size balls. Make a hole in the centre of each ball and insert a teaspoon of the olive caper mix. Shape the balls so they are completely covered. Roll them in the bread crumbs to coat.
- For the yogurt sauce combine in a small bowl yogurt, mustard, nutritional yeast, lemon juice and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
- Serve the balls at room temperature or warmed up in a non-stick skillet or the oven, with the yogurt sauce on the side. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Category: Main
- Cuisine: Vegan
O these look so good! I love millet! What a fun new way to make it!
Thanks 🙂
Oh my goodness, this looks amazing, Evi! I do like millet, but I normally don’t have many ideas how to use it except a porrige or salad so this recipe is might be something I’ll need to try!
Thanks, Ben!
It’s really popular to use millet in Hungary as a vegan quark, so I often use it as a bread spread or even pasta sauce 😉
I LOVE Arancini and am so excited to try this version with millet!
I hope you’ll like it, Laurel 😉
Don’t eat lots of grains these days, but I do love millet. These stuffed balls look very inviting and fun!
Thanks, Angie 🙂
Wow! These vegan millet balls look amazing. Love how hearty and flavourful these balls are. I am sure I’ll love them!
Thank you, Anu 🙂
O-o another millet fan over here! your balls look and sound incredible Evi (what-a-sentence-by-the-way!!! 😀 ) I have some artichokes and really don’t know what to make with them, so may take your advice and try to make some using artichokes…will keep you posted… 🙂
Hahaha, I’m laughing so hard on that sentence 😀 😀 😀