Falafel fritters

Making your own falafel is easy. With this recipe, you pan fry the felafel – a nice alternative to their deep fried counterparts available at the supermarket. Besan flour (chick pea flour) can also be substituted for self raising flour to make these gluten free. Omit the yoghurt to make into a vegan recipe.

FALAFEL

Prep: 30 mins
Cook: 30 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 800g/28oz of chick peas (tinned), drained and rinsed
• 1 cup of flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed or grated
• 2 tsp of cumin ground
• 1 tsp of coriander ground
• ½ red onion, chopped
• ½ cup of self raising flour or besan flour for gluten free
• 1 tsp of salt (iodised)
• a pinch of pepper
• olive oil
• 2 cups of tabouli
• 4 tablespoons of natural yoghurt
• 2 large or 4 small lebanese bread
• tomato sauce
• hummus

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC/375ºF/Gas Mark 4.
2. Place half of the chick peas in a food processor with the parsley, garlic, cumin, coriander and red onion and blend to a paste.
3. Add remaining chick peas and pulse to them to add texture.
4. Transfer mix to a bowl add flour, then season with salt and pepper. The mix should be quite firm.
5. Roll a tablespoon of mix into a ball and squash into a patty.
6. Heat a non-stick pan with a few drops of oil, and cook test patty until golden brown on both sides. Taste for seasoning, and check mixture holds together and is not too wet.
7. Roll out the rest of the mix into patties and place on a tray sprinkled with flour.
8. Brown patties in batches in a frypan. Transfer to a baking tray and cook in the oven for 15 minutes.
9. Cut each lebanese bread in half and fill with two falafel, tabouli, yoghurt/yogurt, hummus and tomato sauce/ketchup (if desired).

TIP
Making your own tabouli is easy. The recipe is on the app. Or buy it at your local deli or supermarket to make it a speedier meal.