Egg & Wheat/Gluten Free - Falafel

Falafel - a deep fried ball or patty made from chickpeas, fava beans or a combination of the two.

It is a common street food in the middle east although they are becoming more and more popular elsewhere in world. Usually being served inside a pita along with salad and drizzled with tahini sauce.

Both vegetarians and meat eaters enjoy this street food and i'm sure like with my family it has a place in your home too, in sha Allah

The name Falafel is said to come from the Arabic word falāfil (فلافل), which is the plural of filfil (فلفل), meaning 'pepper' indicating this snack is spicy which is true however, for me with 2 small children, trying to get them to eat hot, spicy things is a struggle and i must say i am not a huge lover of chilli like my husband so i choose to use sweet paprika instead of hot pepper flakes but the choice is yours.

Maths/Weight problem

As i used dry chickpeas (for the first time i may add lol) i weighed out 246grams before soaking in water. Not thinking at the time DUH that the chickpeas will take on water overnight, which of course they did and so i ended up with twice the number of chickpeas app 500g. So that is a big point to note for any future dry bean recipes Asmaa, either randomly put as many dry beans in a bowl of water to soak over night and weigh the next day the amount required for your recipe OR dry weigh approximately half the quantity you need for your recipe, assuming all beans take on the same amount of water, I'm sure they don't!

Now onto the recipe...

Falalfel Recipe

Recipe adapted from Ya Salam Cooking and About.com

Ingredients

• 1 x 400g Net Weight =246g after being drained and rinsed OR approximately 123g dry chickpeas = 246g after soaking overnight


• 1 large onion, chopped


• 2 tablespoons coriander or parsely, finely chopped


• 1 egg or equivalent in egg replacer plus water required (i used 1 heaped teaspoon orgran no egg plus 2 tablespoon water)


• 2 tablespoon chickpea flour also known as gram flour


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1 teaspoon ground coriander


• 1 teaspoon ground cumin


• 1 teaspoon ground paprika or hot chilli pepper flakes


• 1 garlic clove, crushed


• Sunflower oil, enough for deep frying

Method

1. If using tinned chickpeas, drain and rinse, pat dry with kitchen paper. Or if like me your using dry chickpeas, soak overnight then drain, place in pan with frsh water, bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes and then reduce heat to a simmer and let cook for an hour. Drain and allow to cool for around 15 minutes.


2. In a food processor add chickpeas, garlic, onion, egg or egg replacer, spices, seasonings, flour and herbs and process until you get a thick paste that is fairly smooth but still with a little texture.


3. Heat the oil to 180C, Shape mixture into as many patties or balls you require. I used a ice cream scoop for the patties and 1 tablespoon of mixture for each of the balls.


4. Deep fry patties for 4-5 minutes and balls for approximately 2-3 minutes. Drain on kitchen paper and then serve any way you like, but for most pita, salad and tahini are a must where as i like serving mine as part of a salad or in homemade mini baguettes/bread fingers, salad, cream cheese, mayonaise and or tomatoe ketchup.