Falafels

I love any type of street food, but I’ve had to learn to make my own sometimes because the original versions are not suitable for vegetarians.

Thankfully, falafels are great right from the start.  I had my first official falafels when I traveled to Israel.  They eat them inside a pita bread as a sandwich.  You then add tahini sauce, a tomato/cucumber salad and any extra fixings you desire.  We only ate falafels for lunch for a whole week… 

This is my friend’s Rosani recipe, but we collaborated.  We used chickpea or garbanzo flour to avoid using canned chickpeas or having to soak and cook the chickpeas first.  As I’ve said, we’re busy vegetarian girls… we love our shortcuts.  And did I mention we also love our fried foods?

FALAFELS

1 1/2 cups chickpea or garbanzo flour

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped

4 cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 tablespoon of water – if needed

Canola oil for frying

1. Place the chickpea flour, onion, parsley and garlic cloves in the bowl of a food processor.  Process a bit until blended, but not pureed. 
2. Add the baking powder, salt, pepper, cumin.  Pulse a bit.
3. If the mixture is too dry, add water and process until mixture becomes a small ball . If not dry,  skip right over to next step.
4. Let the mixture rest for 30 minutes.
5. Form the chickpea mixture into balls about the size of walnuts.  Let them dry up a bit while the oil reaches temperature.
6. 
7. In a large skillet, heat up canola oil at medium heat and fry falafels until golden brown.  It’s important not to have the oil too hot, because the falafel will brown, but not cook inside.  We want the whole falafel to the thoroughly cooked.

Enjoy the falafels inside a pita bread and tahini sauce.  Or enjoy them as appetizers with a tamarind sauce or mango chutney.  As soon as I find tamarinds or tamarind puree, I’ll show you how to do it.

Tags: chickpea, garbanzos