Falafel

Something that is very appreciated by vegetarians is falafel. We figured it could not be difficult to make your own, and it wasn’t!

Falafel has a lot of flavour and it can be eaten in so many ways. Today we chose to eat some green lentils with our falafel and we made a yoghurt sauce. The falafel was a bit spicy so the fresh youghurt sauce was perfect to eat with it.

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Ingredients Serves 4
Cooking time: 1 hr

• 230 g chickpeas (1 tin)
• 2 tsp fresh coriander
• 2 tsp fresh parsley
• half an onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili flakes (take 0.5 tsp if you don’t want it too spicy)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3-4 tbs flour (to make the recipe gluten-free, use corn flour or bulgur instead)
• sunflower oil for frying
• 200 ml yoghurt
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp tahini paste
• salt
• pepper

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1. Put the chick peas, onion, garlic, parsley, coriander, cumin, chili flakes and salt in a food processor.
   
2. Mix until blended but don’t let it turn into puree.
   
3. Add the flour and baking powder and blend again.
4. Form the mix into 12 equally-sized balls.
   
5. The mix should not stick to your hands. If it does, add a little bit more flour.
6. Cover the balls with cling film and refrigerate for 30 mins.
7. Heat the oil in a saucepan. You need enough oil to just cover the top of the falafel, so about 5 cm.
8. Fry 4 balls at a time. (You can do more if you have a larger saucepan.) They should cook for 3-5 mins, until browned. (Roll them over regularly if the oil doesn’t cover them.)
   
9. Take out the falafel and place them on a plate on some kitchen paper, and cook the remaining falafel.
   
10. Make a quick dipping sauce:
    1. Mix 200 ml yoghurt with 1 tsp tahini paste.
    2. Add 1 tsp of lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.
11. Serve 3 balls of falafel with the dipping sauce.
12. Serve with your choice of other food. We had some lentils and red onion to eat with our falafel, but you can have them with anything you prefer: bread, rice, lentils, or just some salad.
13. Enjoy!