Back to Basics: Falafel

Back to Basics: Falafel

What! No falafel recipe on my blog! HOW could that happen! Oops! It’s something we make quite a bit in some shape or form! 😀 I also realised that I haven’t posted in the Back to Basics series for a while, so here is a delicious falafel recipe for you. In the oven five minutes after you’ve found the tin opener! Seriously!

Falafel? Well, it’s traditionally a Middle Eastern dish, usually eaten in a sandwich – such as pitta bread. If you live in a big city in the UK you may be fortunate enough to be able to get a falafel burger as a take-out from a kebab shop, if you live somewhere like Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, it’s probably available everywhere as street food. For those not in either of these situations, don’t fear, here is a very easy cheat to making delicious little falafel bites!

Back to Basics: Falafel

So, the main ingredients are either chickpeas (which I use), fava beans, or a mixture of the two. Unbelievably I was talking to my nephews step-Dad the other week and discovered that he grows fava (or faba) beans here in the UK! He didn’t know they were called fava beans, he just knew them as ‘spring beans’ and knew the variety is ‘Fuego’. What does he do with them? He exports them to Egypt which I assume they then use to make fuul – their national dish! ? Back to falafel! The main flavour in falafel is cumin, so as long as you have that, the other ingredients aren’t too important, but I’d try to at least add garlic if you can.

Basically, you drain the chickpeas and get them as dry as possible, then mash then with the spices, form into patties and deep fry – or bake, or a bit of both! That’s it! Lets have a look at the recipe!