Baked Falafel

This week is just dragging by for me. I think it’s because I’ve been pretty sick and lethargic this week. All I seem to want to do is sleep, and when I am awake, I struggle to keep my eyes open. Needless to say, I haven’t done much in the kitchen. I made these last week and just couldn’t muster up the energy to post about them. Today, I forced myself back in the kitchen and back to the computer.

These don’t look very pretty. They get their anemic, yellow hue from the turmeric, which isn’t necessary to the flavor, I just add it because it’s supposed to be a “healing” spice; a really good anti-inflammatory. I’ll try anything to help aide my GI issues so I usually toss this spice into a variety of foods. I don’t notice a difference in taste, just in color.

These could be fried or sauted in oil in a skillet, but since I try to minimize my stomach pain, I chose to bake them so they wouldn’t be greasy. I served mine with greek yogurt, and chipotle chile yogurt (I mixed a pureed chile and adobo sauce into plain, greek yogurt), but tzatziki would be amazing. I didn't serve them in pitas, we ate them with homemade sweet potato fries.

The hardest thing about making these is remembering to soak the chickpeas in advance, which for me, is difficult. After days of the leaving the recipe and chickpeas on the kitchen counter, I finally had to write a post-it note to myself. Guess subtlety doesn't work too well with me.



Baked Falafel
Printer-friendly recipe
serves about 4

1 c dried chickpeas
~2 Tbl fresh cut cilantro
¼ tsp cayenne
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp turmeric
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp baking powder
~4 tbl flour
Olive oil, for baking

Day (or night) before:
Place the beans in a medium bowl and cover with a few inches of water. Allow to soak up to 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas, and transfer them to a food processor. Add cilantro, salt, garlic, spices, and lemon; pulse several times to form a thick paste. Transfer to a medium bowl, add the baking powder, and mix to combine. Add the flour, one Tbl at a time, until the mixture stays together when formed into a ball.

Form the mixture into balls then flatten into patties of desired size.

Place on baking sheet, spray with olive oil cooking spray (or brush with olive oil) bake about 15 minutes. Flip, spray again with olive oil and bake about 10-15 min more until golden brown.



Source: slightly adapted from Pink Parsley