The first time I had falafel was just over a year ago. When I was in Ottawa for my pre-move trip to see the area, I found a restaurant close to my hotel, Chickpeas, that I visited several times during my trip.

That was the first – and last time – I had falafel, but it was AMAZING!!! Unfortunately, the restaurant is really not convenient to our place (when I booked the hotel for my trip, because I didn’t know the area well, it was terribly inconvenient for both where we’d be living and where I’d be working – but great location for shopping!)

Actually, I have had falafel since last year… but it really wasn’t very good… it was that “terrible” I completely forgot. Non-memorable.

So, after humming and hawing for a while, and not really knowing what to do for my lunches this week, I decided on falafel! I’ve been thinking about this for a while but after my last experience, I was a little nervous… though figured it couldn’t be any worse than the last time I had it!

And as it turned out, they were SUPER yummy! Very easy to make and absolutely delicious!

SERVINGS:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dry chickpeas
• 2 Cups roughly chopped onions
• 1 Cup cilantro
• 1 Cup parsley
• 8 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1/4 Cup lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 5 Tbsp flour IF required

Instructions:

1. Place the dry chickpeas in a pot and cover with enough water to cover by at least two inches. Soak for at least 8 hours, but I do mine overnight. DO NOT BOIL THEM AFTER THEY ARE SOAKED! This is key and why canned chickpeas can’t be used.
2. Throw everything in a food processor and blend until smooth and well combined. I had to do mine in two batches as the recipe is quite large and my processor wasn’t big enough. I suggest trying to split the recipe somewhat in half – half the chickpeas, onions, and garlic at least. Everything else is fine in the first or second batch, just make sure you know what you have or haven’t processed. Place the two batches in a big bowl and mix well.
3. I made the mixture in the afternoon for cooking for dinner. I placed it in the fridge until needed.
4. Don’t add the flour until you try the mixture. Mine was quite wet but not a single one fell apart.
5. Form the mixture into balls and flatten to about 1/2 inch thick and approximately two inches across. I pre-formed about six before I started cooking them. Add some oil to a non-stick pan and heat. Make sure the oil it hot before adding the patties – hot oil will cook the patties, cold oil will be absorbed into the patties.
6. I was using a smaller pan (as it was the only one we have that has really good non-stick) but I found smaller batches worked really well. Carefully add 3 or 4 of the patties into the hot oil. Once nicely browned, flip over and cook the other side. Approx 2-3 minutes per side.
7. Continue to form patties while the ones in the pan are cooking. Repeat until all of the mixture is cooked. Add more oil as required.
8. Pre-heat oven to 450 and place lightly fried falafels on a pan and cook for an additional 5-7 minutes. This is to help cut down on fat content as falafel is usually/often deep fried. This way you get the delicious crunchy outside and cooked inside without additional fat.

Nutritional info per falafel (serving size to your discretion)

• Calories: 73
• Fat: 2 g
• Carbs: 12 g
• Fiber: 2 g
• Sugar: 3 g
• Protein: 3 g