Unmeatball Sub

Matthew surprised me the other night with dinner. He's a capable cook, but his repetoire is far from extensive, moreso now that we're no longer cooking meat. I was very impressed with this clever dish, inspired by a recipe in a cookbook he got me recently, Great Main Dishes Without Meat. (Betty Crocker feels that chicken/beef stock is not "meat," but that's easily substituted and the dishes are interesitng, so we'll forgive that.)

Loosely, the recipe involves taking soy-based burger patties and crumbling them, mixing them with spices, and frying them into meatballs. Matthew used Morningstar Farms pizza-flavored patties, added still more spices (sort of unnecessary, but still intense in a nice way), and tried frying them. They fell apart - I haven't even been able to make MEATballs this way - so we baked them. Smothered with onions, peppers, sauce, and parmesan cheese, served on a hoagie roll (roasted red pepper and goat cheese Kettle Chips on the side), they were the perfect accompaniment to Olympic figure skating.

They were extremely good, actually, and even tasted like meat.

Verdict: 5 stars