Easy Vegetarian Falafel

When you’re a vegetarian, finding easy, simple, and flavourful recipes can often be a challenge. Sometimes you don’t have the time, energy, or skill needed to try and assemble herbed black quinoa muffins with tamari toasted pumpkin seeds and rustic pea spread. Let’s be real, that doesn’t even sound edible. That’s why whenever I’m in the need for some new treats and eats I use what I know and try to stick to the basics. First off, I always take a look at what’s in my house to see what I already have. Usually we keep our fridge stocked with a couple spreads, quite a few breads, and a rainbow of veggies. Additionally, the pantry is usually bursting with a variety of lentils and spices. If you have at least a couple of items from each of those groups, the number of vegetarian combinations and concoctions you can come up with are almost endless. This week, I decided to utilize chickpeas, tzatziki, pitas, and a couple of other assorted veggies to whip up some delicious, classic, and simple falafel wraps. Although the tzatziki and pitas were from the supermarket to save a little time, the falafel balls were made entirely from scratch and were definitely worth the little extra effort!

INGREDIENTS

For the falafel:

• 1 cup dried chickpeas
• 1/2 large onion, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
• 4 tablespoons fresh parsley or cilantro
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 clove of garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4-6 tablespoons flour
• Olive, canola, or vegetable oil for frying

For the wraps:

• Chopped tomato
• Diced onion
• Chopped cucumber
• Tzatziki and/or hummus
• Pita bread

METHOD

1. Put the chickpeas in a large bowl and add enough cold water to cover them by at least 2 inches. Let soak overnight, then drain. If you’re in a hurry, you can skip this step and use canned chickpeas instead. Not as authentic but they’ll still work!

2. Place onions, parsley/cilantro, salt, chili powder, garlic, and cumin in the bowl of a food processor. Add the chickpeas in sections to the mixture, using the pulse option to combine the ingredients until blended but not pureed. You want to keep the mixture granular and solid and if you over-blend it’ll become more of a hummus type paste.

3. Sprinkle in the baking powder and 4 tablespoons of the flour and pulse. The amount of flour is adjustable, but the objective should be adding just enough that it becomes more of a structured dough that can form a small ball and is no longer sticky or hard to shape. Once it has reached this state, cover the bowl and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Again, you can skip this step or reduce the refrigeration time if you’re in a hurry but just keep in mind that the falafel may be a little more fragile during the cooking process.

4. Roll the falafel dough into little balls. I flattened mine a little bit so they were easier to fit into my pita wraps.

5. Pour enough oil to create a thin layer of it at the bottom of a wok, deep pot, or skillet. Heat the oil on medium-high and then fry a small ball to test. If it falls apart, add a little more flour to your mixture and try again. Once you have the right ratio, fry the rest of the balls, letting them cook for a few minutes on each side until they are crispy and golden brown. Place the cooked falafel on plate covered in paper towel to drain any extra oil. Remember to make sure that the oil is not too hot and you’re gently placing them into the pan rather than dropping them as that might cause the hot oil to splash, so be careful!

6. From here you can either just enjoy them with tzatziki and call it a day or you can go the route I did and add them into a pita with some tomatoes, cucumber, onion, tzatziki, and any other fillings of your choice. While tzatziki is usually readily available at most supermarkets, it’s pretty much just yogurt, garlic, and cucumbers so it’s a breeze to make at home as well!

I hope you enjoyed this amazing falafel recipe! Although it was a little bit out of my cooking comfort zone, I’m so glad I gave falafel a try; it’s definitely going in my recipe book. As intimidating as it may seem, vegetarian cooking is not as challenging as you may think, and I promise for every herbed and rustic pea spread slathered black quinoa muffin you may come across during the endless search for meatless recipes, there is an absolutely delicious and straightforward recipe just waiting to be discovered!