Lately I’ve decided to downsize. Not the house. Me.
However I love falafel. On the other hand, it’s usually fried.
So here is my very yummy, non-fried, healthy, 0 points on the new Weight Watchers Plan Falafel!
Ingredients:
| 1 | Pound | Dried Chickpeas/Garbanzos/Cici Beans |
| 1 | Small (or 1/4 Large) | Yellow Onion |
| 1/2 | Bunch | Parsley |
| 4 | Cloves | Garlic |
| 1 1/2 | Tablespoons | All-Purpose Flour |
| 1 3/4 | Teaspoons | Kosher Salt |
| 2 | Teaspoons | Cumin Seeds |
| 1 | Teaspoon | Coriander Seeds |
| 1/4 | Teaspoon | Black Peppercorns |
| 1/4 | Teaspoon | Ground Red Pepper (optional) |
| 1 | pinch | Cardamom seeds (or ground) |
| 1 | Tablespoontd> | Olive Oil |
Equipment:
| Food Processor | |
| Spice Grinder or Mortar and Pestle | |
| 1 | Baking Steel |
| 1 | Convection Oven |
Directions:
The day before cooking:
- Put the dried beans in a large bowl or pot and cover with at least 4″ of water. Leave 12-24 hours
Cooking day:
- Set the oven to “convection” and preheat the oven and the baking steel to 500°F
- Put all the dried spices into a spice grinder or mortar and pestle and grind to a powder.
- Put the salt, the ground up spices, garlic, onion and beans into the food processor and pulse with the chopping blade (looks like a curved lawnmower blade) until the chunks are about the same size as dried couscous.
- Add the flour and all the parsley and pulse until the parsley is chopped up. Don’t process too much or the falafel will be mushy.
- Take a ping-pong ball sized chunk of falafel mixture and form into a ball then flatten between your palms to form a “flying saucer” shape. Place on the baking
steel and flatten with your hand slightly. - Repeat until the mixture is gone or you have enough falafels.
- Lightly brush the tops with a little olive oil.
- Cook until the bottom and top of the Falafel is golden brown.
- Serve immediately with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce and chopped tomatoes and thinly sliced onions in a half-pita
- If you don’t use all of it, save the uncooked mixture and use the next day. Don’t cook extra balls and reheat, since they’re much better freshly cooked than reheated.
Enjoy!