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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Baked Falafel Patty



This past summer my husband spent a month in Washington state. Left to his own newly vegan devices (less than month), he subsisted on the same few meals over and over. One of them being falafel from the food court next door. He was going there on a pretty regular basis until the owner thanked him for his continual business, and then he got embarrassed and cut it down to only a few times a week.

While there are plenty of places to buy falafel around here, it is such a easy (and healthier!) thing to make at home that I have taken to making him a big batch and freezing it. Well, now I just refrigerate it because he goes through it so quickly there's no reason to freeze.

Yesterday we both had falafel for dinner, and there is just something so satisfying about those chickpea patties.

Our recipes involves a few additions and then we pair it with a silken tofu tahini sauce.

Baked Falafel
3 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp dried cilantro
2 Tbsp dried mint
2 cups chickpeas
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 Tbsp wheat gluten flour
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
water (optional)

*This recipe doubles...or triples (which I did last night) very well*

Preheat oven to 400.
Mix garlic, cilantro, mint, chickpeas, gluten flour, and oats in a food processor until chopped and blended.
Sprinkle baking powder, cumin, salt, and black pepper over the mixture.
I like my falafel mix to be almost paste-like, so at this point I will add about 2 Tbsp of water.
Form the falafel mixture into patties (you could go for more traditional balls, but it will affect your cooking time), and place on a greased baking sheet.
Cook 10 minutes, remove and flip, and cook another 10 minutes until golden brown.

Now, my husband is also a big fan of hummus, so that invariably goes into his pita, but I prefer the taste of tahini with my falafel, rather than overload the chickpeas with more chickpeas (although I guess some would propose that impossible!).

Silken Tofu Tahini Sauce
1/2 cup silken tofu
3 Tbsp tahini
1 clove garlic
3 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
water to texture
salt and pepper to taste

Add everything into a small food processor or blender, and blend together. Add water to achieve the consistency you like. Ours was fairly thick, I added about 2 Tbsp of water.


In addition to health-i-fying the falafel by baking rather than frying, I had a falafel salad instead of a pita. As I've said before, I'm not a big sandwich person.

Go enjoy some falafel. Its good for you, its got protein and fiber, and..umm....its delicious!! Any other falafel lovers out there? From what I've seen, no one rivals my husband!

17 comments:

  1. Yummy! My hubby loves falafel!

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  2. i do love falafel. the one time i made it, was so time consuming because i made the pita from scratch too so i think that made future falaf,el endeavors seem daunting. next time i should just focus on cooking one or the other at a time.

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  3. Baked falafel are one of my favorite dinners too. I make a very similar tofu tahini dip for them.

    Alicia

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  4. I love falafel. Nick and I go to a restaurant called Brazenhead often, and I always order the Greek salad with falafel, feta, tomatoes, artichoke, olives...yum!

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  5. I loved baked falafels! I always make the Lightened-Up ones in ED&BV. Funny thing is, I put my baked falafels on salads usually too!

    when i first read your post title, i thought it said baked falafel party, and i was like YAH! PARTAYYY

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  6. This sounds wonderful. Thanks, I'm going to give this a try!

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  7. I love falafels, but find them a bit daunting to make. Your recipe sounds do-able though, may just have to give it a try!

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  8. Yummy! Everything looks delicious.

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  9. I love falafels! I'm going to have to try these!

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  10. Falafel is the best! This looks delicious, especially that tahini sauce. Thanks for the recipe.

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  11. I just adore falafel, especially baked! That's how we make it at the restuarant too- with my recipe, I might add... Not to brag or anything! ;)

    Haven't seen a recipe that calls for wheat gluten before, but I would definitely be curious to try it.

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  12. Thanks for sharing your falafel recipe! I have never tried baking falafel before and will add this to my menu next week.

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  13. Mmmm falafels....I love falafels. Baking them sure makes them healthier!

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  14. Mmm I love falafel! I just wish chickpeas loved me back. I've had falafel with split peas before though, I might have to try your recipe with those, it looks delicious!

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  15. Falafels are just always so good - but made even better by baking! Good choice! Thanks for posting the recipe for the tahini sauce, I will give it a try the next time I good falafel crazy.

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  16. Hi Gina!
    I just wanted to let you know I received the bars today :) I am so excited! They look amazing.
    Thanks!

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  17. Falafel is like my all time fave. These look pretty easy...and love that they're not fried.

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