I’ve been craving some middle eastern fare for the past few days and after spending an afternoon in downtown Birmingham at the Magic City Art Connection with the enticing scent of gyros wafting in the afternoon air, I think it’s high time to get my falafel on for date night dinner!
I’ve never made falafel before, but hey, with an easy to follow recipe from The Shiksa in the Kitchen, how hard can it be? Tonight’s Date Night Menu calls for falafel with hummus (I also through together a concoction of yogurt, dill & lemon juice) along with grilled vegetables and some pineapple. Turned out it was really awesome and we made ourselves sick eating too much!
Tori’s Recipe
- 1 pound dry chickpeas/garbanzo beans
- 1 small vidalia or yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 3-5 cloves garlic
- 1 1/2 tbsp flour
- 1 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- Pinch of ground cardamom
- Vegetable oil for frying (grapeseed, canola, and peanut oil work well)
Directions
Plan ahead! This isn’t the recipe for you if it’s 3:00 in the afternoon and you’re jonesing for falafel for dinner (like I was!). You need to buy dry garbanzo beans and let them soak overnight. Tori said don’t get the canned beans and take it from me, she’s right. They just don’t have the consistency that re-hydrated dried beans have (not that I’d know from experience!).
Put the beans and the rest of the ingredients (not the oil, of course) into a food processor and pulse until you get to a consistency that is somewhat like fine couscous. You want the mixture to still have some granularity to it, but also to be a fairly pasty.
Once you’ve reached the desired consistency, scoop the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate for an hour or so. Then, form the mixture into balls roughly golf ball, or ping pong ball size. The great thing about this falafel mix is that you can make a ton of it and then refrigerate what you’re not ready to use – make it all into the balls first though – and when you’re hungry for falafel, all you have to do is get it out and fry some. I’m not sure how long it will stay fresh, but mine has lasted for a couple weeks before I fix and eat it all.
Fill a sauteé pan (that’s a frying pan with vertical sides!) about 1 1/2″ deep with vegetable or canola oil & heat to about 375°. If the falafel balls fall apart, put it back in the food processor and mix an egg (or flour if you want to stay vegan) into the mixture.
Fry the falafel 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and let them dry on a paper towel or wire rack. Then enjoy with hummus, tabbouleh, grilled vegetables, a nice sauvignon blanc and top it off with kanafeh and some Turkish coffee!
Cheers,
Ed