Falafels

We use lots of different recipes for falafels, depending on what I have in the cupboards.  I have been asked for a recipe, and this is one that we made the other day.  Usually I use soak dried chickpeas to make hummus and falafels as they work out cheaper.  A can of chickpeas can be used, but I think that dried give a better texture, and hold together better.  I just put them in a jar with water the day before and put them in the fridge in summer, or on the counter in winter.   After rinsing chick peas should be cooked for a while to help with digestion (recommendations range from 45 to 2 hours), and apparently to get rid of harmful substances that can inhibit the absorption of some minerals.  However, soaking them reduces the phasin and phytic which causes the problems.

I must admit that I have used them raw after being soaked, sometimes, when I have not had the fuel to boil them, and they had no effect on me, luckily.  I don’t recommend this as apparently it can cause vomiting etc. I now try to boil them on the fire pit outside to save money and condensation, or cook them in slow cooker.

I like to make my falafels into a small, flat patty as we often eat them in wraps.  They are hard to fold if I make them in balls, though I do if making a platter for visitors.  This recipe made enough for a couple of wrap meals for both of us , with a few left over for a pickie lunch.  I often freeze them to use at another time.  They help make a nice, healthy meal.

Ingredients

1 small white onion, finely chopped (I only had a red one and so used that).

1 large clove of garlic, crushed

400g of chickpeas

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 handful of fresh parsley or 1 tsp of mixed herbs

1/2 tsp of garlic powder, option

1 egg beaten

1 tbsp of plain flour (or chickpea flour)

Salt to season

oil for frying

Method

1.  Fry the onion and the garlic on a low heat.
2.  In a food processor place all of the ingredients except the flour and oil, and whiz.
3.  If using tinned chick peas, I would mash the ingredients together with a fork instead.
4.  Add enough of the flour to bind the ingredients so that they will form a patty.  We added just less than this recipe, but more can be added if needed.
5.  Warm the oil in the pan and fry for about 2 or 3 minutes on each side, or until golden and firm to the touch.  Due to them being patty shaped, less oil is needed to fry them than if they were balls.
6. I drained mine on a piece of kitchen paper.  These can be served hot or cold.

Sometimes we use other spices like chilli, smoked paprika in these.  This makes about 9 to 10 falafel patties, depending on how large you make them.  I  haven’t tried these yet in the air fryer, but that will be an experiment for another day.  We have warmed them up in the air fryer, though.

Something that I have discovered recently was how nice these are with pickled red cabbage.  I didn’t have a lot of salad available to put in my wraps with the falafels, and so added some pickled red cabbage.  In the future I will be putting some in every time that we eat them.