Vegan Black Bean Crumbles (Ground Beef Substitute) or "meatballs"

I used to buy the soy-based ground "meat" substitute to make all sorts of things - and one of my favorites was a pasta sauce that we could top with cheese.

I stopped buying that stuff for a number of reasons, but today I wanted to make that "meaty" tomato sauce.

So here's what I did:

2 cups cooked black beans, drained
1 onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
3 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
salt, pepper, dried parsley flakes to taste

Heat olive oil in a frying pan, and saute onion, red pepper and garlic, till fragrant and beginning to brown.

Combine all ingredients in food processor bowl, and pulse till you have a relatively smooth paste (you can do this in a mixing bowl with an immersion blender if you don't have a food processor).

Spray olive oil on an 8" baking pan, then spread black bean mixture in the pan.

Bake for 25 min at 200C (about 425F)

Allow to cool. When cool, crumble the mixture into tomato sauce, heat, and serve over pasta or rice. This can be used to make a taco filling or sloppy joes too. It's really versatile!

Note: You can also shape these into "meatballs" or patties for "burgers". Just shape them and place them on a cookie tray (greased or lined) and bake at 200 C for about 15-20 min, but watch them to be sure your oven isn't faster than mine!

I'll try to take a picture next time I make this! I didn't have the camera handy today, sorry.

UPDATE: Here's a picture of this recipe, made as meatballs: