Quick dinner: Chickpea balls in tomato sauce

This has to be the quickest, easiest dinner. It's also vegetarian, healthy, and kid-friendly. The chickpea balls only take a few minutes to make, and the tomato sauce can be a home-made basic pasta sauce or store-bought in a jar. Home-made pasta sauce freezes well, or it can be vacuum sealed in jars and stored in the cupboard.

Ingredients:

• Can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 egg
• 2 slices of multigrain bread
• Handful of fresh herbs - parsley, oregano, or rosemary are nice
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Pre-made tomato sauce

Throw everything except the tomato sauce in a food processor and whizz til it's well-mixed and there's no whole chickpeas left.

With damp hands, form a tablespoon of mixture into a ball. Repeat until all the mixture is made up into balls.

Heat vegetable oil in a large frypan on medium heat. Carefully place the balls in the frypan to cook, turning with tongs after a few minutes when they have started to brown on one side. The uncooked balls can break up easily, so handle with care.

When they have browned on two sides, pour in the tomato sauce and spoon over the balls. Gently heat through.

Serve over spaghetti or macaroni, with parmesan on top.