IKEAがベジーボールを発売してからずいぶん経ちますが、私は先日初めて食べました。おいしかったので、冷凍のベジーボールを二袋も買って持ち帰りました。もともとミートボールが恋しいことはなくて、こういうものを作ったことがなかったのですが、IKEAベジーボールの材料を参考に作ってみたくなりました。どうするか考えているうちに、もっと野菜の歯ごたえのあるものにしたくなって、根菜を使いました。根菜は体を温めると言いますし、冬にぴったりかもしれません。歯ごたえのある具の量をこのくらいに保ちたかったので、揚げ物でない方法できれいな球体にするのは少し難しく、カップケーキの型に入れてオーブンで焼いてみました。ボールというより団子ですね。型を使わないで丸めることもできますし、米粉をまぶして形を整えて、油でカリカリ揚げればきれいな丸になります。生地の固さは里芋の種類や水分によるかもしれませんので、緩い場合はくず粉を増やすなどして調節してください。きんぴらごぼうの残りを使ってもいいと思います。
材料
里芋 中5個（360g）ごぼう 1/2本（120g）
れんこん 小1節（100g）
にんじん 小1本（80g）
生しいたけ 肉厚大きめ2枚（50g）
ブロッコリ 1/4株（70g）
エクストラバージンオリーブオイル 大さじ1
にんにく 1かけ
鷹の爪 1本
ローズマリーの葉 小さじ2 お好みで
醤油 大さじ1 2/3
みりん 大さじ1
自然塩、粗引き胡椒 各少々
パセリみじん切り 大さじ2
くず粉 大さじ4（粉状でないものは少量の水で溶く）
作り方
1) オーブンを200度に予熱しておく。2) 里芋は厚めに皮をむいて、塩でもみぬめりをとってからやわらかくなるまで茹で、ざるに上げてから熱いうちにつぶし、水分をよく飛ばしておく。
3) ごぼうは短いささがきに、れんこんは粗みじん切りにして酢水にさらし、ざるに上げておく。
4) にんじん、しいたけ、ブロッコリも粗みじん切りにする。
5) フライパンにオリーブオイル、ガーリッククラッシャーでつぶしたにんにく、鷹の爪、ローズマリーを入れて火にかけ、弱火で香りが出るまで炒める。鷹の爪は取り出す。
6) 中火にし、ごぼう、れんこん、にんじん、しいたけ、ブロッコリの固いところを入れて、ごぼうやれんこんの端が透き通ってくるまで炒め、醤油、みりん、塩、胡椒で味付けする。
7) つぶした里芋に、炒めた野菜、ブロッコリのつぼみの部分、パセリのみじん切り、くず粉を入れてよく混ぜる。
8) カップケーキ型に詰めるか、手で丸めて、好みでローズマリーの葉を上に飾り、オーブンの下段で30分焼く。
It's been a while since IKEA started serving its veggie ball in Japan, but I had it for the first time only a few days ago. I really liked it, and bought two bags of the frozen version to bring home. I never missed meat balls, so I had not made such food -veggie version of meat ball- but I felt like giving it a try, looking at the ingredients of IKEA's veggie ball. While I was thinking what to use and how to make, I wanted a crunch of vegetables in the balls, and decided to use a few root vegetables. They say that root vegetables are warming foods, so it is perfect for winter. I wanted to use plenty of crunchy vegetables, which are not meant to bind the mixture, so it was not easy to form a smooth ball without deep-frying. So I used a muffin pan and baked in the oven. To me, it is "dango" rather than ball. You can still from into balls with hands, and can make a perfect round by forming it with rice flour coating and deep-fry if you like. It might depend on the moisture of the taros. If it's too gooey, you can adjust by adding more arrow root powder.
Some of the root vegetables in the ingredients might not be available outside of Japan. You can replace them with other vegetables as long as they're crunchy, like celery hearts, bamboo shoots, or other root vegetables such as daikon, or by using extra of any one of them. The volume amount of the vegetables apart from taro and shiitake (as taro is for binding and the shiitake would shrink) roughly becomes 4 cups. You also can replace shiitake with another mushroom, but shiitake has the best umami flavour, and umami is important in this recipe. If taro is not available, try with Chinese yam or potatoes.
Ingredients
5 medium size taros (around 360g)1/2 teaspoon natural salt to rub the taros
1/2 burdock (around 120g)
1 node lotus root (around 100g)
4 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon vinegar to soak in burdock and lotus root
1 carrot (around 80g)
2 thick shiitake mushrooms (around 50g)
1/4 broccoli (around 70g)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 head garlic
1 dried red chili pepper
2 teaspoons rosemary (optional)
1 2/3 tablespoons soy sauce (gluten-free one)
1 tablespoon mirin
Natural salt and ground pepper corns to taste
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped parsley
4 tablespoons arrow root powder (dissolve in water if a flake form)
Direction
1) Preheat the oven to 400F. Grease a muffin pan or line it with cupcake liners, or place a baking sheet on a baking tray if you would like to form into balls (it's a bit sticky, so it wouldn't make a smooth surface.)2) Peel the taros deeply. Sprinkle salt on the taros and rub to remove the gooey liquid outside. Cook in boiling water until soft, drain and transfer to a bowl. Mash it while it's still hot, and set aside to let the moisture out with the steam.
3) Shave the burdock into thick pieces, and chop the lotus root coarsely. Soak them in the water mixed with the vinegar as soon as you cut them, for 10 minutes, then drain and set aside.
4) Chop the carrot, shiitake and broccoli into large pieces. Peel the broccoli stem thick beforehand.
5) Place the olive oil, garlic crushed with a garlic crusher, red chili pepper, and rosemary(if using) in a skillet and heat over a low heat. Stir until the garlic smells nice, and remove the red chili pepper. (Tip: You want to transfer the flavour of the dried red chili pepper to the oil while heating. Thus it should be on a low heat and before adding the other ingredients.)
6) Turn the heat to medium, add burdock, lotus root, carrot, shiitake, broccoli stem, and stir until the edge of burdock and lotus root become translucent. Add soy sauce, mirin, salt and pepper, and turn off the heat.
7) In the bowl of taro, combine together the stirred vegetables, broccoli buds, chopped parsley, arrow root powder.
8) Spoon the mixture into the muffin pan, or form it into balls with hands. Top with rosemary if using. Place the pan on the lower position of the oven, and bake for 30 minutes.
Japanese and English of this article are written respectively, not a translation from each other.
Author Yumi
English supervised by Dan
