Introduction

After a few days of no content, I decided to use today to share a recipe I tried a few days ago after a long wait to do so. I did one attempt to make falafel not that long ago but it was the whole hassle of making them that stopped me from another try until last week. I've been a bit fed up with chicken lately as I've been using it a lot in many dishes and it was time for another approach. Falafel it is!

My daughter loves falafel

It could surprise you that falafel is loved by my daughter as I've mentioned it before, she's a very difficult eater. While I know how it's like to be one myself, as I've been a horrible eater during my childhood and early adulthood without any denial, she's far more difficult, lol. I guess my mother was right when she told me "all the difficulties you're giving me will be returned in tenfold when you have a child". Thanks mom, I appreciate it! Jokes aside, there has been improvement with some food lately, while I was stubborn a big part of my life. On the other hand I ate way more than my daughter as I was open to at least trying a bit more than she is. Oh well, thankfully, she loves falafel!

It was in Budapest when we all first ate falafel. I never heard of the things and we landed in a tiny and cute restaurant one evening close to the first place we stayed at after arrival. We didn't have much choice in our area and we were so thrown off by all the horrible greasy food that we were willing to try something new, lol. So we entered the restaurant with just 5 tables I think it had and ordered falafel for all of us. Including hummus and fries for my daughter and myself while my boyfriend went for rice to be safe. I was very surprised when these green balls arrived and my daughter loved them! It was probably due to them frying them and having a brown crusty outside that she was willing to try them, so thanks guys!

Time to give it another try

And for a long time we didn't have a food processor at home so I was not even going to try this, and I remember the first attempt with food processor didn't come out perfect either. But with all new things there's room for failure, right? We ate them anyway, so they weren't that bad. I also wasted a few badges of chick peas when soaking them and then forgetting that I had them waiting for me. What a waste! But that was due to bad timing, I made sure to time it correctly this second attempt and you can see how they turned out below.

I did not measure things exactly by following a recipe this time simply because it turned out to be a nightmare to do so when adding too much ingredients in the food processor at once so this time I followed my gut feeling by adding the ingredients on the fly. I made sure to have them all lined up for every round of mixing in the processor. I have to warn you, the mixing (even in the processor) is not a nice task if you ask me, I found it very annoying that you constantly have to scrape the sides and mix again to then have everything stuck again after 10 seconds. I think this will never be my favorite dish to make, but that's fine.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients I used for my second attempt of falafel:

• Dried chickpeas soaked for 12 hours
• Fresh Cilantro
• Fresh Parsley
• Onion (I used 2 batches of chopped onion leftovers both red and white onion)
• Pepper
• Salt
• Cumin
• Fresh Garlic
• Flour
• Sesame Seeds
• Coriander
• Coconut Oil (for the baking part)

I think I didn't forget anything I added this time, if so, you can check the commonly used ingredients online to find your preferred combination. I think I forgot to add cayenne pepper while I bought it especially for this recipe last time. It's fine though, the recipe needs to be prepped a few more times before I find my preference anyway. I also read about adding baking powder to make them less dense, so I took note on that for the next time I make falafel.

So my easy instructions are: throw it in the processor (not all at once, as it will become a nightmare to scrape it from the sides) but make smaller batches mixing it thoroughly and then place the dough in the fridge for a few hours before making the falafel and baking or frying them.
I baked them in a pan with coconut oil as I don't have a fryer. Before baking them, I dipped them into sesame seeds:

Then bake them in coconut oil until crispy on the outside:

And combine with red onion, baby spinach, cucumber, paprika and roasted quinoa in a wrap, add some sauce and bon Appetit! I was aiming to add homemade guacamole but the avocados were not good anymore, so I used garlic sauce instead.

Writing this post made me hungry, I will now head over to the kitchen and eat some homemade coconut soup. Have a good evening!