Homemade Falafel for Dinner & Apple Chips for Dessert

This photo cracks me up:

With a very anxious puppy on my hands this morning, I fit in a 20 minute lunchtime play session at the park with Little Miss Harley. After about 15 minutes of being a total lunatic, she collapsed in the shade. When our time was up and I tried to get her to go, this is what she did:

Isn’t her face hilarious? The park = heaven on earth for Harley. I didn’t mind basking in the 80 degree sunshine for a bit either!

Moving on to food, tonight for dinner I tried my hand at making falafel, a Middle Eastern chickpea patty that is typically deep fried. But come on now, is there deep frying in my kitchen, ever? Not going to happen friends! I’ve eaten some yummy falafel from street vendors in New York City late at night after many drinks (this may or may not have taken place a bunch of times…). I was hoping to recreate them tonight, and I have to say, they turned out pretty tasty. The only thing I’m not sure about is why they came out slightly crunchy. I think perhaps I didn’t coarsely puree the chickpeas quite enough. Will further investigate that next time, but I think this recipe gets a thumbs up.

Falafel

Adapted from Joy of Cooking: All About Vegetarian Cooking

Makes 2 servings

Ingredient List:

• • 1/2 cup dried chickpeas
  • 1/4 cup onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 1 TSP ground cumin
  • 1/2 TSP salt
  • 1/4 TSP of ground coriander
  • 1/4 TSP baking soda
  • 1 TBSP all-purpose flour
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  • A pinch of ground pepper, depending on how spicy you like your food
  • 2 whole wheat pitas (Sara Lee)
  • 2 oz crumbled Feta cheese (President)
  • 1 tomato, diced (I used Roma)
  • Handful of chopped lettuce

Rinse & soak the chickpeas in a strainer. Place in a food processor and finely chop. [WARNING: If you have a nutty puppy with oversized sensitive ears, she/he is NOT going to like the noise this will make!]

Add onion, parsley, garlic, cumin, salt, coriander, baking soda, and ground pepper, then process until the mixture is pureed.

Put mixture in a bowl and stir in the flour. 

With wet hands, form 2 patties. Let stand for 15 minutes (I’m not sure of the science behind this but I obliged…).

Warm the oil in a skillet over medium heat. During this time, put your pitas in the oven or toaster for a few minutes to warm them up.

Cook the falafel until golden on both sides. This will only take a few minutes on each side. Put patties on paper towels to wipe off any excess oil.

Put a patty in each pita. I chopped them up first, but this is optional. Add Feta cheese, lettuce, and tomato to each, and they’re ready to go!

Nutrition stats per pita: 380 calories, 15 g fat, 18 g protein, 55 g carbs

It seems like I have quite the sweet tooth this week! For a sweet snack tonight, I made apple chips. They’re super easy but take awhile to cook, so I popped them in the oven while making dinner so they’d be ready when I wanted them (now!).