Comforting vegan meatball subs

The weather here in the UK is just…depressing. There is no other word for it. I don’t think I have seen the sun in about 4 days, it is grey ALL DAY, it is raining 99% of the time, and it is below 10 degrees every day. So whilst I try to stick to very wholefood meals during the week, when it comes to the weekend I need something a little bit more hearty.

So welcome the meatball sub.

Originally, I would have gone to an actual Subway sandwich shop to get one of these but, like so many chain places in recent years, they have removed one of the best vegan options so now I can only get one when I actually make it myself. I will start this then by making it very clear that this is not a very creative recipe – literally every part of it is store bought – but when I want a comforting and easy meal, nothing beats this.

All you need is:

• a good baguette
• your preferred meatballs – we are big fans of the Linda McCartney meatballs but any will work
• Tomato sauce
• herbs if you desire
• cheese if you desire – any cheese will work, but our favourite is grated Violife

The recipe itself is very simple:

• Cook the meatballs according to the instructions – this tends to be in the oven for roughly 20-30 minutes on gas mark 200, but check your choice of meatballs
• whilst these are cooking, cut your baguette into the desired length – I tend to have about 2 meatballs per section of baguette, but you can go as big or as little as you like – it’s your meatball sub after all!
• Once the meatballs are cooked, I like to put the meatballs into a saucepan with the tomato sauce and just gently heat the sauce until it starts to bubble. Stir the meatballs whilst the sauce is heating up so that the meatball is truly covered. It is also during this time you can add in any salt, pepper or herbs if that is what you fancy.
• Place your meatballs into the baguette cuts, add any left over sauce (if you want to) and if you have cheese, place this on top.
• OPTIONAL: For the ultimate sub, we like to put the cheese on top of the sub and then place the whole sub under the grill for a few minutes to allow the cheese to really melt into the sauce and to crisp up the bread a little bit to add a nice little crunch when you take a bite.

And that’s all there is to it! Comforting vegan food doesn’t need to be complicated or fancy, and I feel this recipe also shows just how easy it is to make a quick and easy vegan meal. Which is really all that matters at the very end of the day!

T xxx