Darshana Thacker Wendel
Darshana Thacker Wendel is a vegan chef specializing in whole-food, plant-based cuisine. A graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute, she is the author of the Forks Over Knives: Flavor! cookbook, recipe author for the book Forks Over Knives Family, and recipe contributor to The New York Times best-selling book The Forks Over Knives Plan. Her recipes have been published in The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook, Forks Over Knives magazine, and LA Yoga magazine online. Visit darshanaskitchen.com for more.



Comments (12)
Easily my least favorite recipe of all the FOK recipes. It takes a very long time (which they do tell you), but it was very bland and the wheat balls didn’t hold together well–they ended up being more like patties, though they tasted fine. The flavor of the gravy ended up being OK, but I had to do a lot of tweaking to get there. Definitely make sure you use almond milk–soy milk (even unsweetened) just doesn’t get you to a savory flavor. Also, I would make a roux with the milk and flour and then add to the mushroom and onion mixture. Sadly, won’t be making this again. Even though it ended up being fine, in the end, it was too time-intensive and needed a lot of modifications of the original recipe.
Not bad! It was a long time cooking all those ingredients. I think if I had turned them several quarter turns they would have been crunchy all over rather than on side. I also think the gravy was nice but unnecessary. They are good sliced like meat balls so they’d be good in spaghetti or a grinder.
So good!! I was feeling mashed potatoes with the wheatballs, so I made another ForksOverKnives recipe, Heather’s garlic mashed potatoes and creamy golden gravy, and the end result was delicious!!! Very good meal! I did pop my wheatballs in the air fryer, and they did take less time. They came out nice and crispy! Will make again.
It was dark and a little blank. Not our favorite in appearance or taste.
I added a bunch of nutritional yeast and some salt to the leftover sauce, and it improved things about 100%
Agree! The sauce turned out gloopy. Overall, it was surprisingly tasteless and quite work-intensive, so I’ll not be making it again.
My first vegan meal it taste fantastic
I love the mushroom gravy, but my wheatballs were not successful. They fell apart. Any advice on how to ensure the balls are moist enough to not crumble?
Can you substitute panko for the bread crumbs?
Wow! Good info, Barbara about fresh vs dry herbs. Never knew this. Thank you!
If we want to replace fresh ingredients with shelf-stable ingredients, what measurements would you recommend?
If you are referring to the herbs use this rule. If using dry instead of fresh, always use 1/3 the amount. Dry herbs are much stronger than fresh. Same goes if a recipe calls for dry herbs. You can use 3 times a much fresh.