Bomb Falafel فلافل ‎

Last night Patrick came over for dinner and we enjoyed a delicious meal cooked by, me!

Falafel is a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas and/or fava beans. Falafel is usually served in pita, which acts as a pocket, or wrapped in a flat bread known as lafa. The falafel balls are topped with salads, pickled vegetables, hot sauce, and drizzled with tahini-based sauces. Falafel balls may also be eaten alone as a snack or served as part of a meze. Generally accepted to have first been made in Egypt, falafel has become a dish eaten throughout the Middle East. The copts of Egypt claim to have first made the dish as a replacement for meat during Lent. The fritters are now found around the world as a replacement for meat and as a form of street food. (wikipedia)

Falafel is DELICIOUS. In Barcelona there is a chain called Maoz Vegitarian, a little tiny whole in the wall shop on Las Ramblas that had yummy Falafel and Hummus. The selling point for me was there was a self service salad bar where you would stuff your pita full of veggies from broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes and many many more and then you had your choice of sauces. We would stand there and eat our Maoz when we would run out of veggies you could just fill it up again! It was the most amazing lunch spot ever! See the veggi bar below!

So last night I was craving falafel and decided to make my own. And I don't want to brag but...It was pretty darn good.

The Recipe

- 1 can garbanzo beans

- 1 whole onion

- 2 cloves of garlic

- Handful of chopped parsley

- 1 Tbs of olive oil

- 1/2 lemon squeezed

- cumin

- coriander

- cayenne pepper

- salt and pepper

- 1 cup of bread crumbs

- 1 egg

- 1 tsp of baking powder

I blended all the ingredients together in the blender but a food processor would have worked MUCH better. Then I made a yogurt sauce.

- 1 cup Greek yogurt

- dill weed

- lemon juice

- 1/2 cucumber (seeded and finely chopped)

-salt and peeper

Then we stuffed pita with the falafel, sauce, lettuce and tomato and paired it with a nice cold Red Chair Deschutes Brewery Beer!