Tuesday, October 23, 2012

falafel

You know whenever I make something, I'm a bit greedy and try to use the ingredients to make many different things instead of a lot of one thing.

For example, I made falafel yesterday. I used half the can of garbanzos for it and with the other half I made my favorite chickpea salad.

Since I used half an egg for the falafel, I plan to use the other half to make a small batch of oatmeal cookies.

Is it only me or do you do that too?

Getting back to the falafel, they were really easy to make and delicious, better than the ones I tried over the summer.

Here is the recipe I used, I left out the salt and pepper, and added some egg (1/2 an egg).

Falafel : About.com

1/2 can garbanzo beans, rinsed
1/4 onion
1 clove of garlic
fresh parsley, leaves only
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 an egg (optional)
1 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon oil

I whizzed everything except the flour in a food processor, then mixed in the flour.

Instead of deep frying them, I put 1 tablespoon of oil into a non-stick pan and pan fried them.

The mixture is quite wet, but when you cook them, they do firm up a little.

I served this with a mint cucumber tzatziki.

For the tzatziki, I mixed some mint, and cucumber with some yogurt and pepper.

NOTES: I ended up with 9 falafel, I think the amount you end up would depend on how big or small you make them.

They cook up pretty fast and had lots of flavor.

I'm definitely making these again. They are perfect for our meatless weekday dinners.

8 comments:

Alan said...

I was taught by my mother not waste anything. So I use up all my ingredients. Sometimes I make double recipes, and sometimes, like you, I make different things. But I never throw things out. This past week I bought hamburger at a good price but I had to buy the family pack. About 8 pounds. Now I could have just frozen some, but I used it all to make hamburger patties, meatballs, and steak size patties. I will vacuum pack some of it for saving later. I also got 10 tomatoes for $1.00. I only used 3 this past weekend. So I will freeze the leftover 7 and use them later in soups, stews, or something.

jalna said...

Half an egg? How did you do that?

genkitummy said...

Mmmm...I'll have to try that falafel recipe. I've tried making them before, but they never turned out right.
And yup, I'm just like you, I try to use up all my ingredients and make half batches of things.

K and S said...

way to go Alan :)

crack the egg, beat a little then divide the mixture, Jalna :)

hope you like this Genki :)

Take care everyone.
Kat

Rowena said...

Me, I just need to see variety on the table, and to have the satisfaction of knowing that the almost 4 pounds of bell peppers that I harvested last week went into chili, sweet-sour pineapple shrimp, shrimp gumbo (splitting the 1 lb. bag of shrimp!), as grilled strips on pizza, oh, and some to my mother-in-law!

K and S said...

holy 4 pounds of bells! wow Rowena, that is an awesome harvest :)

Take care.
Kat

K said...

Yum, great job with the homemade falafel!

K and S said...

Thanks K!

Take care.
Kat