It has been a while since I published my vegan tofu sausage recipe. I absolutely adore that recipe and am thrilled every time I make them, but they do take a bit of time to make. After coming back from Sweden (the land of the meatball) I knew it was time to work on a new recipe for tofu meatballs.
These tofu meatballs are gluten free, vegan, nut free and low FODMAP in the right serving sizes. They use firm tofu, pickled onion (for a low FODMAP onion flavour) and my new favourite gluten free panko crumbs (made from rice crackers!).
To flavour the meatballs, we’re using a light gluten miso paste, dried sage powder and some dried thyme. I also like to add a small amount of dijon mustard and maple syrup to round out the flavour.
Tofu doesn’t hold together easily on its own, so we’re enlisting the help of a small amount of psyllium husk powder and some gluten free panko or breadcrumbs. All of these ingredients work to result in an umami and deeply flavoursome meatball.
Ingredient notes
- Firm tofu is the way to go here. I also like to freeze my tofu the night before and defrost it by boiling it. This creates a chewy and bouncy texture that is very meaty.
- I love using my gluten free panko recipe here, but I daresay any gluten free breadcrumbs will work well. My problem with store bought gluten free breadcrumbs is that they have such a long ingredient list and still taste incredibly mediocre (in my opinion).
- The miso paste does a lot of the heavy lifting in the flavour department and I don’t recommend omitting it.
- The pickled onion is an optional ingredient designed to give these meatballs flavour without the FODMAP content. I’m sure you could use fresh onion as well, although I haven’t tested it.
- Tofu meatballs are more fragile than regular meatballs. Tofu doesn’t have the binding capacity that meat has, so we do need the psyllium husk powder to help everything gel together. I haven’t tested a substitute at the time of writing.
- I recommend having plenty of gluten free panko crumbs on hand. How many you need will depend on how drained your tofu is and a number of other factors.
Tips for making your tofu meatballs
I have three main tips for ensuring success with this tofu meatball recipe. The first is to ensure that you blend the tofu mixture rather than just crumbling the tofu with your hands.
Tofu doesn’t have any inherent capability to cling together. Blended tofu does. This is why it is important to blend the tofu to ensure the meatballs hold together. When I make my tofu sausage recipe I like to blend the mixture in my Nutribullet. A high powered machine really creates a viscous mixture that clings together.
I have tested this recipe in my mini KitchenAid food processor. It takes about 3-5 minutes to really get a texture that sticks together. If you are seeing bits of tofu in the mixture, keep blending. It needs to be a puree (with no clumps) that sticks to itself as opposed to crumbly bits of tofu.
My next tip is in relation to the mixture once everything is added. After leaving the mixture for 10 minutes to firm up, it should be sticky yet firm. If you pick up a small ball and roll it in your hands, it should not crumble or feel super fragile. When you flatten the ball in your hands, it shouldn’t fall apart but should form a disk instead.
If your meatball mixture is crumbling, it is too dry. Add a tablespoon (20ml) of water, mix and assess. Continue until you achieve the above consistency, then continue to roll out your meatballs.
My final tip is in relation to the size of the meatballs. Because these tofu meatballs are a little more fragile, I highly recommend making smaller meatballs. They are easier to turn while cooking and are more likely to stay round rather than flatten out into little patties.
Tips for cooking your meatballs
In my experience testing these meatballs, two things are needed to pan fry them: a hot pan and patience.
Because the meatballs contain psyllium husk powder, they can stick to the pan if it isn’t hot enough. When you go to turn them, they can leave their lovely brown crust behind if your pan isn’t sufficiently hot. An easy solution? Hands off.
If your meatball is stuck to the pan, put it back down and leave it for a while longer. In my experience, the crust will eventually release from the pan when it is hot enough and the crust is cooked through. So, if you find your meatballs are sticking simply stop turning them for a little while.
In terms of how long you need to cook them: just enough to brown them. They don’t contain any ingredients that need to be cooked through; tofu can be eaten straight from the packet, as can every other ingredient. Cooking the meatballs is really about browning them for texture as well as extra flavour and a more meatball-like appearance.
I have also tested baking the meatballs in the oven and it did work (although see the section below for a bit more information). I still think pan frying is a far superior method here.
Can I make these tofu meatballs without breadcrumbs?
You can, but with caveats. First of all, I recommend omitting the pickled onion (or any onion, for that matter). They are much more fragile without breadcrumbs and the onion doesn’t help.
Secondly, you need to ensure you have the consistency down pat. A crumbly mixture will absolutely not work without a binder, so I only recommend this if you are confident about your mixture consistency.
Boiled and drained tofu is key to success here too – too much liquid will result in meatballs that are too wet or fragile to hold together in the pan. It is also not a matter of simply adding more psyllium husk powder – the subsequent meatballs have a gelatinous bite that is unpleasant (trust me, I tried).
Next, you will need a thoroughly preheated pan for cooking. As we have discussed, psyllium based meatballs easily get stuck to the pan, so the only way to avoid this is to ensure you have a thoroughly heated and well oiled pan. I use vegetable oil because it has a low smoke point but use whatever you feel comfortable with.
FODMAP notes
- These thresholds are current as of February 2026. They will be periodically updated to ensure they remain current.
- Firm tofu is low FODMAP in serves of up to 174g per person. In serves of 175g, it contains moderate amounts of fructan.
- Pickled onion is low FODMAP in serves of up to 84g. In 85g serves, pickled onion contains moderate amounts of fructan.
- How many servings you get from this recipe depends on what you serve it with. I highly recommend serving the meatballs with something – spaghetti or mash and gravy. When you serve them like this, you can easily serve 6-8 with this recipe.
- When divided into 6 serves, this recipe contains approximately 84g tofu per serve and 16.5g pickled onion per serve. While they are both fructan containing ingredients, this is significantly below the threshold for each. I recommend serving the meatballs with no other fructan containing ingredients.
Can I bake these tofu meatballs?
I have tested baking these meatballs and it does work. However, they are just really not as good. They taste more like a bland falafel than a meatball.
As such, I really recommend pan frying them. It is quicker and they taste better!
If you desperately want to bake them:
- Use less salt than you would for the pan fried ones. The baked ones are drier so the salt is more condensed.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/356F.
- Line a large baking tray and coat each meatball in oil. I put a few tablespoons in a small bowl and roll each meatball in the oil before putting it on the tray.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
More gluten free and low FODMAP tofu recipes
- Low FODMAP vegan bolognese
- Low FODMAP marinated tofu
- Low FODMAP peanut butter tofu
- Sweet and sticky ginger tofu
- Low FODMAP tofu larb
Tofu meatballs (gluten free, nut free)
Equipment
- Food processor (I use a mini KitchenAid food processor)
Ingredients
- 500 g firm tofu frozen then boiled to thaw, drained and torn into tiny chunks
- 100 g pickled onion (see notes)
- 25 g (1 tablespoon)* gluten free miso paste
- 40 ml (2 tablespoons)* water
- 40 ml (2 tablespoons)* olive oil
- 2 teaspoons dried sage powder
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 6 g (2 teaspoons) psyllium husk powder
- 50 g+ (1/2 cup) gluten free panko crumb (recipe linked below) or gluten free breadcrumbs of choice, added to achieve the right consistency
Instructions
- Prepare your tofu starting the night before. Freeze the tofu in the package.
- The next day, defrost the tofu by removing it from the package and boiling it in salted water for 20-30 minutes. The corners of the tofu block might flick up a little and that’s when you know it is done. Use tongs to remove it from the pot and place it on a wire rack over the sink. Allow it to cool completely.
- Once cooled, thoroughly squeeze the block of tofu to remove the excess moisture. Tear it into tiny pieces.
- Place the drained pickled onion (if using) and tofu in a food processor (I use my mini KitchenAid food processor).
- Whisk the miso paste with the water in a small bowl and add it to the food processor along with the oil.
- Blend the mixture until it is smooth. It should be more of a cohesive paste consistency than a chunky ricotta consistency and much less lumpy (although a bit of a grainy appearance is expected). Every piece of onion and tofu should be ‘dissolved’ – there should not be any big chunks. Anything less than this and your meatballs won’t hold together well. It takes me about 5 minutes to fully blend the mixture in my little food processor.
- Use a silicon spatula to get all the mixture into a medium mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients except for the gluten free panko/breadcrumbs. Mix well to combine and adjust according to your preferences. Set aside for 5 minutes to firm up.
- From here, you can assess how much panko/breadcrumb you need. I normally end up using 50g of my gluten free panko breadcrumb. You want enough so that the mixture is easy to roll into balls but not too much that the mixture becomes dry.
- If you are struggling to roll your mixture into balls, consider the texture. If it crumbles as you try to roll, you need to add a bit more liquid. Add 20ml (1 tablespoon)* water, mix and try again. If your mixture is too wet, you can either pop it in the fridge for 20 minutes to try and firm it up or add 25-50g more gluten free panko/breadcrumbs.
- Roll the mixture into firm meatballs with about 1 ½ – 2 teaspoons of mixture. I find the smaller ones tend to hold their shape better than larger ones (although you can experiment). I got about 42 small meatballs.
- Heat a large skillet over a medium heat. Add a thin layer of high smoke point oil to the pan once it is hot.
- Add one test meatball and if the oil sizzles as you add it, the pan is at a good temperature. Check that the meatball hasn’t stuck – if it has, keep heating the pan. If it hasn’t, continue adding extra meatballs with space between them to enable easy turning. Turn the meatballs as they brown. I like to brown them on all sides but they generally sink into a slightly less round shape and have a defined top and bottom.
- Once nicely browned, remove them from the skillet onto a wire rack. You can serve immediately but they are also nice cooled and make great leftovers.
Notes
- See my gluten free panko crumb recipe here.
- See FODMAP and ingredient notes in the body of the post.
- See the body of the post for loads of tips and suggestions. I don’t just write them for fun!
- See the body of the post if you want to bake your meatballs. I don’t really recommend it, but it does work with some alterations.
- If your meatballs lose shape as you turn them, you need to be more gentle but also likely need to add more panko/breadcrumbs next time.
- I recommend a food processor for this recipe. I find that a Nutribullet generally requires more liquid than this to blend. If you add more liquid to this recipe, it will be really hard to form meatballs that hold. Simply adding more crumb to counteract more liquid will result in a bland meatball. So, I do really recommend a food processor rather than a high speed blender.
- You can make larger meatballs – you’ll get about 20-30 meatballs. However, I do find that they taste more ‘tofu’ like than the smaller meatballs.
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