Posts Tagged ‘falafel’

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Sweet Potato Falafel

Tomorrow=Vacation. And can I just take a minute to tell you how ridiculously much I need a vacation? I don’t think I’ve ever needed a break as much as I need one now. Granted, it’s not going to be a very relaxing vacation. I’m headed to Austin, Texas, for Austin City Limits. A full weekend of music, family, food, and fun :) I won’t be catching up on sleep, but I’ll be leaving work behind and having a blast. Thank goodness! Chels and I have been totally consumed with Project Food Blog (you still have some time to vote for us!) and a couple other projects, too. So, we apologize for veering from our “normal” blogging schedule :)

I had a few sweet potatoes left that I wanted to use before we left for TX and when I came across this recipe for Sweet Potato Falafel, I knew it was exactly what I was craving. You see, I used to have a bit of a falafel obsession. In high school, I made my mom buy the boxes (Near East) and she would make it for me every other night after track practice and before piano lessons or SAT class. I ate it so much that I got sick of it and couldn’t stand the thought of falafel for a while.

Until I got to college and started eating it at many of the little Middle Eastern eateries in the area. Then a couple years ago, I made it myself and learned how easy it was. This sweet potato falafel is baked instead of fried and one of the easiest things you’ll ever do. You just need to get your hands on some garbanzo flour (or chick pea flour), which I easily found at Whole Foods.

Sweet Potato Falafel (makes about 16 falafel):

  • 2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1.5 pounds)
  • 1.5 t ground cumin
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1.5 t ground coriander
  • Handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
  • Juice from1/2 lemon
  • 1 C (scant) chickpea/garbanzo flour
  • Olive oil
  • 2 T sesame seeds
  • Salt and pepper


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Bob’s Red Mill is the best! I’ve been buying so many of their products lately :) Whole Foods has an awesome selection, but Market Basket does, too.

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Heat your oven to 400 degrees and put your sweet potatoes in on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Cut some slits in the potatoes with a knife first. They’ll probably take about an hour to be totally tender. (if you’re low on time, you can totally pop them in the microwave for about 8 minutes or so, too).

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Once the potatoes have cooled, peel the skin from them and put them in a large bowl.

Add in the cumin, garlic, cilantro, coriander, lemon juice, and garbanzo/chickpea flour. And some salt and pepper if you like.

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Mash until smooth and then either put in the fridge for about an hour or the freezer for about 20 minutes.

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When you take the “batter” out, it should be sticky, but not really wet. You can add more flour if you need.

Form little balls with the mixture… The recipe said “falafelly looking things”), but I just pretended I was making cookies. I got about 15 little falafel.

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I also sprinkled them with sesame seeds:

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Then I popped them in the oven for about 15 minutes, until they were golden brown on the bottom.

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I served them with some Greek yogurt for dipping.

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I was planning on putting them in the pitas, but ended up just gobbling them up!

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The falafel were a tad bit dry, but the website warned me they would be and that they’re not the same as normal falafel. The yogurt definitely helped and the flavor was awesome!

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I’m probably going to throw a bag of these on my carry-on and snack on them while on the plane to Austin. They look like cookies, right? But they’re definitely a bit healthier. And filling, too. These are the kinds of things I always want to have around for random snacking (I work from home and do A LOT of random snacking!).

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I’m headed to bed now to try to get a couple hours sleep in before my flight in the morning. Of course, I’ll be back with some Austin, Texas, fun!! In the meantime, let me know if there’s anything I can’t miss while on vacation in Austin!

And please, vote for us for Project Food Blog if you get a chance and like our post. We’d love to show you what we have in store for Challenge #4 :) Thanks, guys, we appreciate all your support SOOOO much!

Are you a fan of falafel? Have you tried making your own?

[Sues]

Related Posts: Sweet Potato Fry Salad with Feta (and Feta Friday Giveaway!), Spicy Asian Lettuce Wraps, Sweet Potato Biscuits With Ham, Mustard, and Honey, Roasted Beet Salad with Feta and Mint, Pan-Roasted Corn Salad with Tomatoes and Feta,
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Monday, June 2, 2008

Middle Eastern Feast

Falafel. I became obsessed with it in high school. I ate it every Tuesday, in between track practice and piano lessons. When I got to college, there was thankfully an amazing falafel place next to my dorm (Pauly’s Pocket). Soon though, I was on a bit of a falafel overload. I needed a break. It wasn’t until this year that I re-discovered falafel. Thanks in part to living in Brookline, home to many delicious Middle Eastern eateries (Rami’s=amazing) and hanging out with Sara, another falafel fan. So after traveling around Boston and surrounding areas, testing out falafel, we decided we needed to make our own. Sara found a fairly simple, healthy falafel recipe from Martha Stewart and we threw our own little Middle Eastern night.

First on the menu was the falafel of course. One important fact Sara and I discovered- chickpeas are also known as garbanzo beans. This may come in handy when you’re searching for chickpeas. Anyway. You’re going to need a little food processor to make this, though I’m sure if push comes to shove, a blender could do the job. Put in half the chickpeas (1 1/4 C), onion (1/4 C chopped), lemon juice (2 T), water (4 t), zucchini (1/4 C peeled and grated), cayenne (pinch), cumin (1/2 t), coriander (1/4 t), baking soda (1/2 t), salt (1/2 t), and pepper (1/8 t). Whew. What was that, like all the ingredients? Pretty much.

Process the mixture until it’s smooth and then move it to a separate bowl. Now put the other half of the chickpeas in the food processor (1 1/4 C) and pulse it a bit, leaving it lumpy. Combine it with the smooth mixture. And add any herbs that you want (parsley, mint, cilantro, etc.).

Now, using your hands, form 12 little patties. The recipe says they should each weigh 1 1/2 oz., but if you know what 1 1/2 oz. feels like, then you are a far better chef than I. I just made 12 patties. Then put them on a wax-paper lined baking sheet and put in the fridge for about 30 mins. This will make them easier to cook up. Oh and make sure you don’t open the fridge quickly when you hear a noise and let the whole tray fall out. Ahem. Close call.

Now you’re ready to cook them. Spray a skillet with some Pam or other cooking spray and put over medium heat. Cook a few patties at a time, for 3-5 minutes on each side until golden brown. Clearly, we did not keep ours in the fridge long enough as they were falling apart a bit.

But they looked delicious nonetheless.

We decided that it was a must to make the tzatziki as well, though we weren’t quite ambitious enough to make our own yogurt. We peeled, seeded, and cut the cucumbers (3 medium) and mixed them with some salt (1 t). We weren’t sure it was necessary to “drain” them, so we pretty much skipped that step, just pressing them a bit to extract excess liquid. Then we Put them in a bowl with the yogurt (2 C), garlic (2 t), dill (2 T), mint (1 T), extra-virgin olive oil (1 T), lemon (1 T), and salt (1 t).

You’re supposed to let the yogurt mixture sit in the fridge for an hour so the flavors can blend, but as usual, we had no time or patience for that. No matter because it was still fabulous. Oh, and I just gave you the whole recipe (makes 4 cups), but we cut it in half and it was more than plenty.

We even went a step further and whipped up some tabouli. We weren’t quite sure where to purchase bulgur, but we managed to find quinoa at Trader Joe’s, which we discovered was a fine substitute. Nina chopped up the parsley (it calls for 3 bunches, but use however much you want). And then we mixed the quinoa (3 T cooked), chopped tomatoes (1), chopped onions (1/2), fresh lemon juice (1/4 C), and salt and pepper (to taste) in a separate bowl. We added the the parsley to this mixture and extra-virgin olive oil (1/2 C, but that seemed like a lot, so we just added how much we felt gave a nice consistency).

Then we cut up some whole wheat pitas. And put all the food out so we could create our own falafel pockets. If you prefer to use lavash bread, I’m sure that would be fabulous as well.

We also thought it would be nice to include a little hummus (no, we didn’t make our own this time). So we spread a little hummus in the pita, added the falafel, tzatziki, lettuce, and tomato and put some tabouli on the side (though it’s just as good inside!) and dug in.

Who knew we could make our own falafel that’s almost as good as what you can get in a Middle Eastern restaurant (and a whole lot healthier!). We were extremely pleased with our group effort and declared the Middle Eastern feast a success! However, next time, I think we’ll make a double batch of falafel because really, the three of us went through all of it and probably could have eaten more (But then, I’ll only speak for myself).

[Sues]
Related Posts: Sweet Potato Falafel, Butternut Squash Soup, Lighter Chicken Potpie, Tomato and Sausage Risotto, Soy-Glazed Salmon,
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