Falafel

It’s a veggie time!!I can just go around farmers market on and on just looking for vegetables. This proves how much I like veggies. Well today’s food is going to be home made falafel!!A very famous Middle Eastern street food. I have cooked this many times, it gets better and better with time,lol!! It is tricky to make, the oil needs to be hot enough otherwise the chickpeas patties will fall apart while deep frying.It is rich in protein, even though it is fried the refreshing cucumber sauce and fresh tomatoes makes it extra yummy…It is strictly veggie. The food is usually served with tahini sauce but I am substituting this sauce with cucumber sauce made in plain yogurt and sour cream!! Everything about this food is so delicious, you would want to come back and cook more and more just like me:)

Time: 20 minutes

Serving: 4

Ingredients:

15.5 ounces of chickpeas

1 cup bread crumb

1 medium size onion

1 cup of cilantro

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Oil to fry

1 packet of wheat pita bread

1 Roma tomatoes to garnish


For sauce:

1 cucumber

1 cup of plain yogurt

2 tablespoon sour cream

½ tsp cayenne pepper

1 table spoon lemon

½ tsp black pepper

Directions:

Heat the oil in the pan. Meanwhile drain the chickpeas from the can and pour it into food processor, add onions,cilantro, cayenne pepper,salt,cumin powder and coriander powder to it. Puree until it is a fine paste.

Add 1 cup of bread crumb to the chickpeas paste. If you don’t have bread crumb, simply make the bread crumb in food processor with old bread crumb. Mix the breadcrumb and chickpeas paste properly, make patties according to your size. When the oil is hot enough 350 degree F, deep fry the patties until it is golden brown.

For sauce, shred the cucumber. Mix the shredded cucumber in the plain yoghourt, sour cream,lemon juice, cayenne pepper and salt.

Cut the pita bread in two pieces, fill each pocket with chickpeas patties, and garnish it with fresh tomatoes and cucumber sauce.