Falafel Recipe is a common dish eaten throughout the Middle East. Falafel are fritters made from ground chickpeas and deep fried. It’s commonly served with pita bread which acts as a wrapper.
Falafel Recipe is frequently served as wrapper sandwich. Falafel balls are topped with salads, pickled vegetables, hot sauce, and drizzled with tahini-based sauces. Falafel balls may also be eaten alone as a snack or appetizer.
My experience in Middle East country had been good with non-vegetarian food like the kebabs in Lebanese style with hummus sauce and Shawarma but I wanted to share a middle eastern vegetarian recipe that I always use to get on my way to work in Dubai.
Before I start explaining Falafel recipe, I want to add on that hummus sauce eaten with Falafel can actually make you lose some weight. Yes, it sounds crazy, but you can eat hummus and actually get thin.
It should not come as a surprise to you if you know a bit about hummus. I will definitely discuss the nutritional virtues of hummus in my coming posts so I won’t go into too many details this time, but the fact is that hummus is really good for you in every aspect.
Not only is it highly nutritional (as long as it’s made from dried chickpeas, not canned ones), but it’s also good for your mental health, and if it’s made properly. Also visit our health and nutrition page where you will get lots of interesting facts. Lets start with our Falafel Recipe now.
| Tip: When cooking chickpeas, baking soda is used to soften the peas, some says it affects the nutritional value and the flavour of the hummus. They say it reduces and loses vitamin B if soda is used, well I heard that claim before and did some research of my own. As for the Vitamins, although chickpeas are certainly rich when raw, you shouldn’t expect much of it to survive the long cooking. The cooked chickpeas are still rich in minerals.The soapy flavour thing that comes when soda is mixed is a possible side-effect of baking soda overuse. The secret, naturally, is to use a small amount of it which all good hummus places do, with great success. You can use a pressure cooker, to cook chickpeas, but if you don’t have one then baking soda is a must, or else the chickpeas would never be soft enough to achieve that famous creamy texture. |
| Makes about 25 falafel balls |
Ingredients for Falafel Recipe
- 2 cups of dries chickpeas, soaked in water for 12 hours
- Crumbs from 2 slices of white bread
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/3 cup chopped parsley
- 1/2 cup chopped coriander
- 1/2 small onion
- 1 spoon of sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin spice
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- Salt, pepper
- Oil for deep frying
- Lettuce, for garnish
- Chopped salted tomatoes, for garnish
- Grated cucumber, for garnish
Method for making Falafel Recipe
- Place dried chickpeas in a bowl, covering with cold water. Allow to soak overnight. Omit this step if using canned beans.
- Drain chickpeas, and place in pan with fresh water, and bring to a boil.
- Allow to boil for 5 minutes, then let simmer on low for about an hour.
- Drain and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
- Combine chickpeas, garlic, onion, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper (to taste) in medium bowl. Add Wash the soaked chickpeas and put them in a food processor with the garlic, onion and spices. Grind until you get a rough moist texture. Add a little water if needed.
- Warm the oil – it should be hot, not boiling. Add the baking soda to the mixture and knead a little
- Now, wet your hands and shape into small balls, about the size of a ping pong ball. Slightly flatten.
Fry until you get a deep brown shade. - Take lot of fresh vegetables and mix it with olive oil and lemon juice salt and oregano and place it of pita bread with chickpeas balls and serve with White bean yoghurt sauce or tahini sauce.
Featured image credit: Eggtckc.com
