I have made the chicken home made sausages on the same day, earlier and it is a quick job like playing with the play-do and mixing, but I daresay I don’t use the eggs in anything from the meatballs to the burgers, sausages. I am also not strict vegetarian or keen keto eater, but I am good cook and I like STEM. Let me share some my tips and tricks I use and they are optional, but also pretty handy for anybody who likes to be a caveman in the fart cart than dropping the egg into the mince mix and driving for the eggs in Polar Star (sounds like my upcoming children book) promo for one box like Gwyneth Paltrow.
She was trying to explain how to make the recipe dairy-free, in her recipe the equation will be for grated parmesan cheese, but as a plain replacement, no diary substitute. The phrasing she used on air is what caused the massive confusion and internet backlash. Because the two halves of her sentence didn’t quite make sense together, people assumed she was treating a salad green like milk or butter. In reality, she was using the arugula to replicate the culinary function of the parmesan in that specific meatball mix, but also something else done by parmesan cheese.
Traditional meatballs usually rely on a mix of beef, pork, turkey or chicken mince , breadcrumbs, and egg to stay juicy, so adding cheese is definitely an extra choice rather than the rule. I am skipping the eggs and always add a table spoon of the oats. I thicken with oats a simple mushroom stroganoff, soups and sauces, and the flour or oats act as a natural binding agent. Call it a food glue keeping the meatballs intact. The big issue comes with the strict keto eaters who avoid any carbs and prefer the egg for extra protein, but the egg acts little differently than just forming nice ball. It misbehaves during cooking process, leaving the meatballs etc falling apart and without moisture. Arugula like spinach contains little bit of moisture, not perfect little helper, but it works on the top of the umani flavour. The cheese makes the bigger trick in her meatball mix.
I use oats, little splash of tomato puree and say sriracha or Worchester sauce and any possible impossible mix of spices to already avoid that dry-turkey trap that Gwyneth Paltrow was trying to fix with her arugula trick.
You have seen her sautéing minced mushrooms in the drying pan and mixing them into the meat. It adds the extra texture (so the aubergine for any meat free natural meaty like mixes) an intense savoury flavour (umami) and plenty of moisture. My trick comes with plenty of the grated raw onion. I don’t go overboard, as you see on my photos, but it is a good portion – ratio per the amount of the minced meat. I have tried my hands on curry chicken sausages. I leave the recipe below and turkey or chicken meat is also incredibly dry, absent of any fat of pork meat, making is amazing tabula rasa for mix ox spices and flavours, but tricky to cook it to the perfection.
You know why Czech, Austrian, Hungarian cuisine is using at least 3-4 huge onions for making meat goulash (sort of meat or meat free stew). There is no huge amount of the fat cream or flour/oats as the binding, thickening agents in the stew. The trick comes with the onions and so you can use a swede or a turnip for thickening the vegetarian sauces. I add the grated apple into the turkey sausages for extra flavour and bigger number of the sausages to air fry or fry. It is a barbecue season and making any home made burgers or sausages is so easy. It is like a play-do, the children can participate. And the men are usually the best with creating of the spice mixes and flipping these burgers and the birds, like Meghan Markle, the best friend of Gwyneth Paltrow.
The best option for keeping the keto meatballs intact is skipping the egg completely and replacing it with any suitable sauce or tomato puree and a generous amount of grated onion. The oats provide their magical spell for any other eater. The explanation and the break down is below.
By skipping the egg and using just a tiny bit of crushed oats alongside grated onion, you are essentially making a highly concentrated, protein-forward meatball.
Here is the food science behind
It sounds counter-intuitive, but adding a whole egg to lean turkey mince can actually make it drier and tougher. Like conscious uncoupling. In a traditional beef and pork meatball, the heavy animal fat coats the egg proteins. This stops them from binding too tightly and keeps things juicy. Turkey has almost no fat to run interference, so the egg white just robs the meat of what little moisture it has. The eggs acts as a superglue at the beginning.
A whole egg is mostly water and protein. When egg proteins cook, they tighten, solidify, and squeeze out moisture. Because turkey mince is already incredibly lean, it doesn’t have enough internal fat to lubricate those tightening egg proteins. The egg white essentially turns into a hard, rubbery matrix that binds the meat too tightly, making it dense and dry. The all nice coupling starts falling apart.
If you ever find your egg-free turkey meatballs are struggling to stay held together, you can add just the egg yolk and discard the white. The yolk is pure fat and natural lecithin, which adds richness and binds the meat without the drying effects of the white. Grating the onion provides the exact water-based moisture the turkey lacks, but it is not a life saviour. Just little British summer shower to prevent the drough. A tablespoon of crushed oats acts like tiny sponges. Instead of squeezing moisture out (like egg whites do), oats trap the savoury Worcestershire or Sriracha , tomato puree liquids inside the meatball while it cooks.
When oats get wet, they release a natural starch that acts like a gentle culinary glue. This holds your turkey mince together perfectly without needing an egg. At the same time, the oats plump up by soaking in your Sriracha, Worcestershire sauce, and onion juices. Instead of that moisture evaporating in the pan, the oats lock it inside the meatball so every bite stays juicy.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Parmigiano-Reggiano saves the texture of lean meats like turkey, but it does it in a completely different way than your oats do. She also does not prefer carbs and likes it gluten free compared to me. While the oats act like a sponge to soak up liquid, Parmigiano saves the texture through fat insulation and protein interruption. You know why not just Italian seal their products with the layer of the fat. As the meatball cooks, the tiny flecks of grated cheese fat melt and create microscopic pockets of liquid fat throughout the meatball. This lubricates the lean turkey fibres, making the meat feel juicy and tender in your mouth instead of dry and sawdust-like. They don’t fall apart. Gwyneth Paltrow used cheese (and then arugula) to fix the dryness of her turkey. It is a prevention.
I already use grated onion, some sort of sauce or condiment and oats, you don’t actually need the cheese for texture. My oats are already trapping the moisture, sriracha etc provides it , and the onion is keeping the meat fibres loose. You can play with these options and then form your play do. Since I do not use egg as a binder, here are quick tips to make sure your meatballs or sausages never fall apart in the pan or the air dryer.
- Mix until “sticky”: Work the meat with your hands until it becomes slightly tacky and uniform. This releases a protein called myosin, which naturally glues the meat together without needing egg.
- If you are trying to make meatballs dairy-free, a much more common and effective cheese substitute is nutritional yeast mixed with a bit of olive oil, which actually provides a realistic cheesy, umami flavour.
- Chill before cooking: Pop the rolled meatballs into the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes before they hit the heat. This firms up the natural fats and helps them keep their shape perfectly.
You find the recipe for my home made curry wurst sausages on my food Substack, free of charge, over thr weekend. Remember to promote yourself like Gwynnie Paltrow aka GP (not always wrong) and cook from the scratch home made because it is the best. The vegan, vegetarian don’t mean healthy at all, often ultra processed crap, but you just swap the meat deal for a can of white beans with the rest of the same recipe and you get meat free replacement without chemicals and eye watering prices. Enjoy your barbie, any Ken and don’t forget to browse our eshop with the new stock to find a suitable outfit. Even Macca got a meat free chicken something substitute on the known podcast. I’m up to my book etc media circus soon, just small round, but a bit of reading and being wheeled out. It is good to look good, know what you eat and be healthy. It is called self confidence and self care. Don’t be silly sausage!
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