Falafel is one of those things that looks like it would be complicated, but is actually incredibly easy to make from scratch. I like to have mine on a warm pita with a feta cucumber salad and pickled onions, but you can have it with just about anything. Once fried, the falafel balls will stay good in the fridge for 4-5 days.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup dried chickpeas that have been soaked in water for 12 hours- do NOT use canned
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 cup cilantro
- 1/2 cup parsley
- 1/2 red onion
- 2-3 thai chilis
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- salt and pepper
Directions:
- Soak 1 cup of dried chickpeas in water for at least 12 hours. Once soaked, you should have about 2 1/2 cups of chickpeas.
- Put the chickpeas, cumin, garlic, cilantro, parsley, onion, chilis, lemon juice, salt and pepper into the food processor.
- Pulse the mixture until everything is combined and the chickpeas are completely broken up, but have not turned into a paste. *if the mixture seems too dry and the chickpeas wont break down small enough, add a little olive oil.
- Place the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Fill a fryer with enough oil so that it is at least 2 1/2 inches deep.
- Right before you are ready to fry, mix in 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda and 2 tablespoons of flour.
- Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, scoop golf ball sized balls and carefully drop them into the hot oil. The balls should hold together, but if they don’t, add a little more flour to your mixture.
- Fry until the falafel is brown on all sides. This shouldn’t take longer then 2-3 minutes.
cafepatel.com 