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Felafel

falafel; felafel
[feh-LAH-fehl]
A Middle Eastern specialty consisting of small, deep-fried croquettes or balls made of highly spiced, ground chickpeas.

I’ve always been a big fan of kebabs (gyros/yiros/any other names?), especially in the wee hours of the morning after a groove at the nightclubs (OK, it’s been a LONG time since I’ve done that.). I always noticed felafel on the menu, but never understood why someone would eat something vegetarian when there was all that tasty meat rotating on the spits.

One afternoon when walking down Acland St in St Kilda (when we lived in Melbourne),  kebab shop was giving taste-tests of felafel balls on the street. Hubby and I decided to be brave and give them a go (maybe we were feeling pre-guilty about the cakes we were going to eat). And WOW! What tasty little treats they were!

It then became a tradition for us to walk down to our local Felafel Kitchen for Sunday lunch, and see how many felafel balls we could sneak into our pita pockets. What a yummy and healthy lunch!

We moved away and don’t have the convenience of a local felafel kitchen here in Brisbane. With an abundance of flat-leaf parsley growing in our garden, I decided it was time to try making felafel.

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Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

400g (16 oz) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans) (drained)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 1/2 cups parsley leaves
1/2 cup mint leaves
1 cup coriander (cilantro) leaves
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground coriander seeds
3 tablespoons cumin seeds
2 tablespoons Plain flour
Vegetable oil for frying

Procedure

1.  Place all ingredients except oil in a food processor. Process until it is a rough chop of mostly green with specks of white chickpeas and starts to hold together.

2.  Form mixture into 4cm balls. Scatter flour on a plate and roll the balls in the flour to give a light coating. Slightly flatten the balls.

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3.  Heat 1cm (1/2 inch) oil in a fry pan. Fry the balls in batches for approximately 2 minutes each side, until golden brown.

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Serve with a salad on the side or in pita bread.

One Comment

  1. Oh I love gyros!! One of my favorite foods. These look yummy and not too hard to make. I am going to book mark this and give it a try!!

    Also, I love your 2011 goals. I would love to make some goals for myself but with us expecting our 3rd baby in a month I have no idea what to anticipate!

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