Falafel!!!!! I love how it sounds, I love how it tastes, I love how easy it is to make. This is a very Middle Eastern fare, and I do admit that these might not be the most authentic falafel’s, but who cares as long as they taste good. In terms of taste, these babies were up there, no higher up, still higher up.. yeah right there in the taste chart. These are something of an art. They look good, they taste better and they give you such a feeling of accomplishment.. like ‘Oh my god, I made these, all on my own’. I could sing praises, write songs, devote a shrine to this food. My man loves it stuffed in a pita, although I ended up eating half this batch in the kitchen all on its own. My excuse? ‘I have to taste each falafel to know if it needs more seasoning.’
Falafel requires a bit of prep, but not some mind bending crazy preparation, it’s just a matter of soaking the chickpeas over night in some water. Sorry you can’t use canned chickpeas, absolutely not!! for they will disintegrate as you fry.. In the morning the chickpeas will be all sorts of fat and swollen, and you have to put them in a food processor and chop then finely to very nubbly bits.
while you have someone going at the chickpeas in the processor, chop some onions, coriander and chillies to really fine pieces.
see this is what the chickpeas need to look like. Season with some salt
Cumin powder
add the chopped onions, coriander, chillies to the mixture and mix well. You have to get in with your hands and mix. I couldn’t take pictures for the rest of the steps, because my hands were all sorts of covered in ummm.. stuff. Anyway, you mix well and form into flattish patties. In case you feel the mixture is too dry and not holding well together, add in about a tablespoon of flour and it will hold. You have to make sure that the patties form or else these will break while frying.
Once you’ve formed these into patties, go ahead and fry. I’m too scared of frying which is why I always have the man take the heat. There’s just something about frying that scares the rationality out of me.
See! aren’t these pretty? I couldn’t believe my eyes when the first one came out. How gorgeous is this? all this while I ate falafel’s outside which hardly tasted good, I made one on my own.. and boom!! it’s so much better and fresher than the ones you get at food chains and eateries..
How you eat these, is up to you. These taste best stuffed in a pita, slathered with hummus, topped with some potatoes and I also scrunch in some roasted red peppers (you can see how you can make them at home here), and cold beer.
So easy and the rewards are so high. You can plan the most stress free dinners with these falafel’s . Just lay out salads, hummus, pita breads, stuffings of your choice and these falafel’s and let the guests go berserk. They can stuff their pita’s and their faces as they want how they want, and you won’t be stressing about, running all over. Try.
Ingredients
Chickpeas 200g soaked over night
Onion (medium-sized)
Coriander (10 stalks)
green chillies (to your taste) . I used 1 green chilly
Salt 1 tsp
cumin powder 1/2 tsp
flour to bind 20-30 g (1 or 2 tbsp)
Oil to fry.
Recipe: Soak your chickpeas in cold water overnight. They should be swollen in the morning. Drain the water and wash them briefly. Chop them finely into very tiny nubbly bits in a food processor or chopper. DO NOT make in to a paste.
Chop the coriander, onion and chillies finely and add into the chickpeas along with salt and cumin. Mix them well and using your hands form them into patties. If you feel that the chickpeas aren’t coming together, add in a bit of flour and shape them. You might feel that it won’t come together but it will. You can increase the seasoning to your taste.
In a utensil of choice, heat the oil enough to fry these patties. Make sure the oil isn’t smoking. Fry the falafel patties and it will take about 2-3 minutes for them to turn into a golden brown colour. Remove them to paper towel or if you want them to stay crunchy for long then remove them on a wire rack to cool.
It’s easy, not fussy, and you’d love the taste, the texture and the above all, you’d be so please with yourself.
Enjoy!!
Driedredchillies 