Feasting on Falafel

I honestly can't tell you why I decided to make falafel. I've only ever had it once in my life at a Lebanese Taverna in Silver Spring, MD. This time I was simply scrolling through my Pinterest when I came across a recipe I had pinned a while ago. Now that I had the food processor I could make it. So I did, and the more I thought about the end result the more I craved it.

To start, you will need:

For the falafel:

2 cups roughly chopped white onion6 garlic cloves2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained1 cup lightly packed parsley leaves1 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves1 teaspoon salt¼ teaspoon chili powder2 teaspoons cumin2 teaspoons baking powder½ cup all-purpose flourCanola oil, for sauteing Pita bread, for serving
1¼ cups plain yogurt (full fat or non-fat)
¼ cup tahini (sesame paste)
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For the tahini sauce:

1¼ cups plain yogurt (full fat or non-fat)
¼ cup tahini (sesame paste)
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

First, prep your onions and your garlic, like so:

Next, add your onions and garlic to the food processor and pulse until minced, then remove and set aside.

Now add your chickpeas, falafel, cilantro, salt, chili powder, and cumin to the processor and pulse until blended but not pureed. I cheated a little with the chickpeas. I couldn't find uncooked ones at Safeway, so I grabbed mine out of the salad bar. Shhh don't tell! 

Now add the onion mixture back in along with the baking powder and the flour. Add the flour in a 1/4 cup at a time. Pulse until the mixture starts to form a sticky ball. You can add in more flour if your mixture is too wet. 

Once this is done remove the mixture and place in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour. 

While your mixture is chilling, make the tahini sauce. Simply combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl and chill until it's time to serve. If you have a condiments squeeze bottle, I highly recommend placing the sauce in there. It makes it really easy to drizzle over your falafel once it's done and makes for pretty presentation. 

Once your falafel has chilled for an hour, heat a liberal amount of canola oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add at least an inch of oil. You need to be able to almost submerge your falafel. While the oil is heating, line a wire cooling rack with paper towels. Beware of hot oil, it likes to pop like a volcano at times so watch yourself! 

After the oil has heated through, using a cookie scoop form the falafel mixture into balls and drop into the oil. Fry for 3 minutes on each side then remove to the cooling rack and immediately season with salt. 

Once you have fried all of your falafel, take your whole wheat pita pockets and stuff at least 3 inside and drizzle with the tahini sauce. 

Doesn't it look incredible?!

These were really, really good. They turned out way better than I expected them to and will probably make an appearance at some point in the future. Beware though, they get rather soggy in the fridge overnight. You can still eat them as leftovers but I would recommend eating them immediately if you make them so you get the nice crunch from frying. Enjoy!