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Falafel

Yield: 4 servings.

Ingredients

  • Falafel Mix
    • ½ cup dried slip fava beans
    • ¾ cup dried chickpeas
    • ½ small onion, quartered
    • 1 garlic clove, minced
    • ½ small bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
    • Handful of fresh coriander leaves
    • ½ tsp. baking powder
    • ½ tsp. ground cumin
    • Coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
    • Pinch hot pepper flakes or cayenne pepper, to taste
    • Vegetable oil, for shallow frying
  • Assembly
    • 4 medium pitas, preferably Middle Eastern style
    • ½ cup tahini sauce
    • 1 tomato, sliced
    • ½ cucumber, sliced
    • Handful of freshly chopped parsley
    • Handful of green olives, for serving

Method

  1. Falafel
    1. Cover both fava beans and chickpeas with cold water in separate bowls. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
    2. Drain and rinse the fava beans and the chickpeas. Rinse thoroughly under cold water until water runs clear. Set aside.
    3. Add onions and garlic to a food processor. Pulse until a mushy consistency. Add parsley and coriander to processor and pulse.  
    4. Add the chickpeas and fava beans to the food processor. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add baking powder, cumin, salt and pepper and hot pepper flakes. Pulse to combine. Continue to pulse until mixture is finely ground in texture and green in colour. If needed, add a touch of water a little at a time until mixture becomes a dough consistency.  Shape into 1 ½-inch discs.
    5. Fill saucepan or cast iron fry pan with 1 1/4-inch of oil. Heat oil to 300 degrees F. Shallow fry the falafels until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towel.
  2. Assembly
    1. Serve falafels with pita, tahini sauce, veggies, chopped parsley and olives.