Falafel

 

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups dried chickpeas
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 small cooking onion
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 cup flat leaf parsley
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Equipment:

• Food processor
• Large bowl
• Baking sheet
• Oven

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, soak 1 1/4 cups chickpeas with about 4 inches of water for 24 hours
2. Preheat oven to 375 F
3. Brush large, rimmed baking sheet with olive oil
4. Coarsely chop 2 cloves garlic, 1 cooking onion, 1 cup flat leaf parsley
5. In food processor, add soaked chickpeas, chopped garlic, onion, and parsley, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tbsp cumin, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tbsp lemon juice
6. Pulse until mix is chopped and mixed but not puree'd
7. Form mixture in 1 1/2" patties and place onto baking sheet. Depending on how big your baking sheet is, you might have to do 2 batches. If you do a second, you might have to oil the pan again
8. Brush tops of patties with olive oil
9. Bake for 15 min, flip and bake for another 10 min

Source: The Mediterranean Table cookbook

Yield: 34 patties (original recipe says 20)

Description:

We had these for New Years Eve. I hadn't tried making them before so it felt like a gamble but it worked out great.

Falafels are often deep fried but these are baked, which suits my purposes because as a rule I don't deep fry at home.

I soaked enough chickpeas for a double batch because I was cooking for two and I have trouble understanding the amount recipes think people want. Turns out, the original amount was plenty and now I still have a bowl of the remaining 1 3/4 cups soaked chickpeas that I need to find a way to use soon before they go bad.

1 3/4 cups is an awkward amount and I might amend this recipe in the future, but all the ingredients about filled my food processor to capacity, so I don't know if the recipe was built around filling up a standard sized food processor.

I mention in the instructions that I had to do this in two batches. The recipe said it would make 20 patties, but I wound up with like, 34 and only 18 could fit on the sheet at a time.

No matter how much I adjust, it seems my oven cooks a bit hotter than intended, so cooked the first batch at 15 minutes on one side, then 10 on the other and they were a little overdone, so the second time I did it for 10 minutes, then 7 and that worked. Maybe I accidentally made the patties too small but they seemed good to me.

The hummus and tzatziki in the wrap in the image are made from recipes on this blog. Lee-Anne made the salad, but I don't know the recipe. Sadly, the pita is store bought. I'll get a recipe for that eventually.