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Vegan Falafel

I've always loved falafels and always in the glorious deep fried form. As I got older, the healthy side in me has led me to find ways to make falafels the healthy way, i.e. baking them instead of deep frying but they were never satisfying and they never gave me that crispy crunch that defined a falafel.

I finally found a balanced between deep frying and baking, basically just pan frying them in healthy canola oil. And the outcome can't be more perfect - I get the crunch that I want without the need to raise my cholesterol level.

Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients

  • 2 cups roughly chopped white onion
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
  • 1 cup lightly packed parsley leaves
  • 1 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • Canola oil, for sauteing 

Instructions

  1. Add the onion and garlic cloves to the bowl of a food processor and pulse just until they are finely minced. Remove the mixture and set it aside.
  2. Add the chickpeas, parsley, cilantro, salt, chili powder, and cumin to the bowl of the food processor and pulse until they are roughly blended but not pureed.
  3. Return the onion mixture to the food processor, along with the baking powder and just enough flour so that when you pulse the processor, the mixture begins to form a small ball and is not sticky. (Note: Start by adding ¼ cup of flour, and then the remaining ¼ cup. You can add more if the mixture is still too wet.)
  4. Transfer the falafel mixture to a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 1 hour.
  5. Once the falafel mixture has chilled, use a small ice cream scoop or spoons to form the mixture into balls (roughly 3 Tablespoons per ball). (Note: You can also add additional flour at this point, if the mixture is too wet to scoop.)
  6. Set a large sauté pan over medium heat and add a liberal amount of canola oil so that the pan is well-coated. Let the pan pre-heat for 3 minutes then add the falafel one by one, browning them on the first side for 3 minutes, then flipping them once and browning the second side until the mixture is cooked throughout.
  7. Transfer the falafel to a paper towel-lined cooling wrack and immediately season them with salt. Repeat this process until you have cooked all of the falafel.
  8. Served with Tahini sauce
  9. Enjoy!



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