Falafel Recipe (adapted from Laurel’s Kitchen)

This is the falafel recipe I usually make. Although not traditional (there’s a potato in it, the chickpeas are cooked, and it’s baked rather than fried) it’s very tasty and is easier than the traditional stuff.

Ingredients

• 1 medium potato
• 1 large bunch parsley
• 2 small onions
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 3 cups chickpeas, cooked
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1 tablespoon yogurt (I use vegan yogurt)
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 dash cayenne (omit if you don’t like spice)
• 1/8 tsp black pepper, ground
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• Juice of 1 lemon

Method

1. Cook and mash potato and set aside (I usually just chop it coarsely and boil it, but any cooking method works fine. You do want to mash well so that there are no chunks). Mince parsley leaves.
2. Grind chickpeas – you can use a food processor or anything else (I now use a food mill set to the largest holes, but there were a couple of years where I used a molcajete and ground ’em up by hand. Basically, you want them to be fully ground, without any whole chickpeas or large chunks visible).
3. Mince onions and saute in oil until soft. Stir in parsley and cook briefly.
4. Add onion/parsley mix to ground chickpeas and stir in all other ingredients to make a paste. Cover or transfer to a tuppeware and fridge for several hours or overnight. I’ve found that chilling the mix really helps the patties hold their shape when they bake – otherwise, they are prone to falling apart.
5. Now, you have a choice: Do you want to make them all now or freeze them for later?
6. If making now: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease cookie sheets. Take about two tablespoons of the mix and form into patties and plunk onto the cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes per side, or until they look dry and slightly toasted when you flip them. Sometimes they have to bake even longer – it depends on how warm they were going in, and how moist the mixture was.
7. If freezing: Form into patties as described above and place on cookie sheets, then put in the freezer until very frozen. Then, pop them off the sheet with a metal spatula and transfer to a freezer container or bag and keep them that way. They are ready to go straight from the freezer into a preheated oven whenever you want (no need to thaw). You will probably need to give them more time to cook if they are frozen, but it’s nice to have them ready to go.