It's hard to believe it's been a year since I returned from my time overseas. Jordan has taken up an irreplaceable corner in my heart and I am missing my sandy home terribly.
I've found the best way to deal with these feelings is to eat them, so let's get cooking. Falafel is one of the easiest things to find in the Middle East and one of the most difficult to find state side. Difficult but not impossible. The way you know if it's good is if it's green. You wouldn't expect this to be so seeing as it is mainly chickpeas. If plain chickpeas are what you're after I recommend hummus; for falafel however color is essential.
Original recipe credit to Just a Taste
What you'll need:
A food processor or blender
1 15oz can Garbanzo Beans or Chickpeas, drained
6 cloves of garlic, pealed
1/2 White Onion
1 cup Parsley leaves
1 cup Cilantro leaves
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
4 Tbs Tahini
3/4 cup Plain Yogurt
Pita bread
Start by running your onion and garlic through your food processor until well chopped. Add your chickpeas, cilantro, parsley, salt and any other spices you want to your onion and garlic; blend in your processor until well blended but you don't want your mixture to be pureed. Dump in your flour and baking powder in; pulse your food processor until your dry ingredients are well mixed into the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate your falafel for about an hour.
In the mean time, mix up your yogurt and tahini to make the sauce for your falafel. Refrigerate this as well until you're ready to eat.
Decide what size your want your falafel to be. I rolled mine to be about the same size as meatballs, you may want yours to be a bit smaller. Cover the bottom of your pan in oil of your choosing (I used extra virgin olive oil). Drop your falafel balls into the oil and saute until the outsides are brown and crispy (about 3 minutes on each side). Set up a wire rack over-top a baking sheet so that once your falafel are finished cooking you can place them on top of the wire rack to allow any excess oil will drip off.
After you've cooked up all your falafel you can either eat it with your hands or make it into a sandwich. Break open a piece of pita bread, cover the inside of the bread with the tahini sauce, add some tomato and falafel, and enjoy!
Who knew this Mediterranean staple was so easy? This recipe serves 2-3. If you're expecting a larger crowd it might be easier to blend the ingredients separately and then mix them together by hand. Otherwise you might be asking too much of your food processor.
My falafel balls wen't as crispy as I would've liked but I think that has to do with how big I made them. Next time I'll be sure to roll them up smaller. Other than that, this recipe was perfect. 5 stars for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment