Falafel

A few weeks ago our canteen smelled so amazing when a colleague of mine was re-heating her lunch. It turned out to be her home made falafel and me and another colleague were dying to get the recipe. Not much later she had it for us.

I'll be honest, I had no clue this recipe would be enough for 4-6 people, so at the moment I have a huge plate of falafel on my counter top 😅

Ingredients:

• 400 gram dried chickpeas • big bunch cilantro • big bunch parsley • 1 medium sized boiled potato • 1 small white onion • 5 garlic cloves • 1½ tsp salt • 1 tsp black pepper • 1 tsp ground cumin • 2 tsp smoked paprika • 30 gram breadcrumbs • 2 tsp baking soda • oil to fry in •

1. Get the dried chickpeas (not canned) and put them in a large bowl with plenty of water. Let soak for 8 to 10 hours. After that, rinse well and drain.

2. Get a kitchen machine and put in the cilantro, parsley, onion and garlic. Pulse for about a minute until finely chopped.

3. Add the chickpeas and all the other ingredients (the boiled potato also) into the herb mix and again pulse for a few minutes. You might need to help it a little bit by pushing the stuff on the sides down every now and then.

4. Once it's all mixed well and has a fine consistency (not too smooth, but not too chunky either) set in the fridge for about an hour if you are gonna hand roll the balls. I used an ice-cream scoop. If you want to do this as well, it's OK if the mixture is a little soft. I like the extra crunchy texture it gets from scooping it. Rolling wakes the balls more smooth.

5. Heat up the oil to about 175°C. Use enough so the falabel will be covered in oil and won't stick to the bottom too much.

Fry in small batches until golden brown. Just eye-ball this process. It's better to have oil that's a little colder than too hot. It will only take a little longer, but the inside needs time to get warm.

Serve with bread, rice or couscous. Use tahini or maybe a nice yoghurt sauce to go with it. A good squeeze of lime also is a miracle worker!

Enjoy!