Delicious Vegetable and Chickpea Meatballs in Bell Pepper Sauce

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius/ 390 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Cut the slice of bread into cubes, place in the food processor and pulse until you obtain breadcrumbs. Remove and use the food processor to grate the Parmesan and the gouda/cheddar cheese and the vegetables as well. Alternatively you can grate them by hand.
3. Place the fresh breadcrumbs back, add the drained chickpeas, dry breadcrumbs, egg, herbs, salt and pepper and blitz until everything is well mixed. Adjust the taste again, be generous with the salt and pepper and add just a few drops of water if the mixture appears to be too dry. If the mixture is too wet and you cannot form the balls easily, add 1 or 2 extra tablespoons breadcrumbs until you are able to form the balls. Do not add too much extra breadcrumbs, the mixture should be pretty wet.
4. Form the balls, they should be about the size of a golf ball and fit in the mini-muffin pan holes easily. I had 22 balls.
5. Brush the mini-muffin pan with some olive oil, place the balls inside and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown.
6. In the meantime make the sauce.
7. Chop the onion and the garlic cloves finely. Slice the bell peppers thinly.
8. Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the onions and cook until lightly golden. Add the garlic and the sliced peppers and cook for about 10 minutes or until soft. Add the sauce, turn the heat down and simmer for about 5 minutes.
9. If you serve this over pasta, add the meatballs to the sauce.
10. If you serve this in a roll, cut the rolls in two, add some sauce on the lower side of the roll and two or three meatballs, top with some mozzarella slices and put under the hot grill until the cheese starts to melt. Place the upper slice of the roll under the grill as well, so that it gets hot too.