Falafel

I was really looking for an excuse to eat some tzatziki sauce, so I decided to try some falafel. I have never tried falafel before, but this recipe turned out pretty nicely. It's a little involved, but not too difficult of a recipe.  For the tzatziki sauce, I bought Oikos cucumber and dill dip instead of making my own.  You can serve these by themselves, on top of a salad, in a pita, or as a sandwich. We had ours on an onion roll with lettuce, cheese, and tzatziki sauce.



Ingredients:

• 15oz can chickpeas 
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley 
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp. ground cumin 
• 1 tsp. coriander (cilantro)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 dash pepper
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave drained chickpeas for 5 minutes to soften, then mash until thick and pasty.
3. Put chopped onions and parsley in a blender and process until smooth, stir into mashed chickpeas.
4. Add all other ingredients, except bread crumbs, to chickpea mixture and mix until blended.
5. Add in bread crumbs until mixture will hold its shape.
6. Form into 4 patties.
7. Grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray and place patties on the cookie sheet, spray the patties with cooking spray.  Bake for 15 minutes, flip patties, spray with cooking spray again and bake for another 15 minutes.

Recipe adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Seans-Falafel-and-Cucumber-Sauce

Photo from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Seans-Falafel-and-Cucumber-Sauce