falafel | Delightful-Delicious-Delovely

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2020

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These guys are REALLY easy to make but this recipe makes a fuckton. If you make more than you want to eat immediately – form them into 1″ balls & place – UNCOOKED – on a cookie sheet & parchment paper. Freeze. Once frozen, you can transfer them to a Ziplock bag. Thaw before frying.

FRESH FALAFEL

Makes about 40 falafels

INGREDIENTS

1 lb DRY garbanzo beans (chickpeas) – soaked overnight in deep water

1/2 onion

1 jalapeno or serrano (optional)

5 garlic cloves

1 cup parsley

1 cup cilantro

1 TBS turmeric

2 TBS ground cumin (maybe more – to suit your taste)

1 TBS ground coriander

juice of 1 lemon (2-3 TBS)

2 TBS olive oil

1 TBS salt (maybe more – to suit your taste)

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp baking powder (this will make the falafel a bit lighter)

1 tsp ground cardamom (optional)

Water – just enough to get the ingredients to blend but go easy – start with 1/2 cup

Oil for frying

GARNISH – pickled turnips (recipe below), chopped tomato, sliced cucumber, pita bread, lettuce, red onion, tahini-yogurt dressing (recipe below) and maybe HUMMUS, tabbouleh, lemon wedges, tzatziki sauce, garlic paste (toum)

DIRECTIONS

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor using as little water as possible – until combined. It should be moist but crumbly.

Form 1″ falafel balls. Do not go too big or they will be burned outside or raw inside. Raw dough will keep several days in the fridge.

Heat oil on high & fry – turning to cook evenly. They should cook in about a minute on each side. Drain on paper towels.

Serve as you will!

PICKLED TURNIPS

Makes enough for 40 falafel

INGREDIENTS

1 red beet

2 lbs turnips – peeled & cut into matchsticks

1/3 cup kosher salt

1 cup white vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Dissolve the salt in the water & vinegar. If you need to warm it – that is OK but not not put the turnips in until it is cooled completely. Add the turnips & beet & store in a jar overnight. They should last a good two weeks in the fridge.

TAHINI-YOGURT SAUCE

Mix 1/4 cup tahini with 3/4 cups vegan yogurt. Season with S&P, minced garlic and/or lemon juice. Maybe a pinch of cumin and chopped parsley. It should keep for the lifetime of the yogurt.

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2014

Follow @celisemccarthy

To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.

OK. In the interest of full disclosure – I got the recipe for the buffalo falafel from one of my all-time favorite blogs – the almighty Thug Kitchen!

(Photo by Thug Kitchen)

This site is just amazing and HERE is their falafel recipe. I am going to include their actual recipe below – because – if you are unfamiliar with these guys – you need to get familiar. Read the recipe! Hilarious!

BUFFALO FALAFEL

FALAFEL:

1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas or 1- 15 ounce can, rinsed

1/3 pound of cauliflower

¼ cup diced onion (yellow, white, red, whatever)

1-2 cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon olive oil

½ teaspoon all-purpose seasoning blend (The no-salt blends are best because you can add that salt shit later in small amounts)

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

BUFFALO SAUCE:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons flour (Whole-wheat flour works here so does brown rice flour. Use whatever)

1 cup cayenne based hot sauce

¼ cup water

1 tablespoon vinegar (Apple cider vinegar is my favorite here but white vinegar would work too. Use what you got)

For the falafel: Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray some oil on a baking sheet. Chopped the cauliflower up into small pieces. Throw it in a food processor and run that shit until the pieces of cauliflower kind of look like rice. If you don’t have a food processor then just chop that shit up as small as you can. Mash the fuck out of the chickpeas in a medium bowl until they form a paste. Chop the garlic up into small pieces. Add the cauliflower, onion, garlic, oil, seasoning blend, and breadcrumbs to the chickpeas and mix that shit up. If your seasoning blend didn’t have salt in it, now you can add a pinch of salt to that motherfucker. The mixture should easily form into balls. If it is too fucking dry, add a little water. No stress. Form the mixture into balls a little bigger than a ping pong ball. Throw the balls on the baking sheet and bake them for 20-25 minutes, flipping them sons of bitches half way through. Remember to set a timer so that you don’t burn the shit out of them. Both sides should be nice and golden. While the falafel bake, make the buffalo sauce.

For the buffalo sauce: In a small saucepan, heat the oil over a medium-low heat. Add the flour and stir constantly until the flour starts to look golden and smell kinda toasted. A few bubbles are cool but this shouldn’t look like it’s boiling. This shit takes about 4 minutes if you got your heat right. Add half the hot sauce and stir until it is all mixed. The flour should make that shit thicken up a bit. Add the rest of the hot sauce, water, and vinegar and stir until it is all mixed up. Turn off the heat.

When the falafel are done cooking, push them gently to the center of the baking sheet and put ¾ of the buffalo sauce on them. Bake that shit for like 5 extra minutes so that the falafel absorbs that sauce. Pour the extra sauce over them when they get out of the oven or whenever you eat them.

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Instead of pita – I used little brioche slider buns – that were not vegan. Here is proof I made the buffalo sauce.

This made a boat load of buffalo sauce so I stored the extra in a jar in my fridge.

I made the falafel – but I got all lazy & just mashed the bejesus out of the ingredients in my food processor.

A word about chick peas. And lentils. And rice. Did you know you can make these kinds of things in large batches – like chick peas from the dried version rather than canned – and then measure out a cup or two of them & put them in Ziplock baggies & freeze them? I made a whole bag of chick peas & froze them up & now – I can just grab what I need from the freezer in small increments. SO MUCH CHEAPER! And easy! Do it! I used some of those chick peas here & I will in my post tomorrow, too.

Anyway – I recommend prepping the falafel as Thug Kitchen suggested. The processed version were very soft & fragile. I lost a lot just trying to flip them. So – touche, Thug Kitchen!

Now – smashed avocado is really just guacamole. Shhhhhh! I just smashed up some avocado with a few pinches of salt & a squeeze of lime.

So – yeah. Make the falafel “dough” and create little patties. Bake them maybe 15 minutes longer than the recipe suggests as these are a bit bigger. Or – at least – mine we so soft that they required a bit more time.