Falafels

My love affair with falafels began when we moved to Cairo, and it still continues (though the south indian paripu vadas seem like its cousin & am not a much fan of it). The hot falafels with a garlic tahini sauce were the best combination ever. During one of my explorations of this mystic city, my friend Kavita Rangappa took me to “Gad”, a local cuisine restaurant and introduced me to “on the go” Tahmeya sandwiches. These sandwiches consisted of the Baladi (local ) bread, which is a whole wheat pita, filled with falafels, fresh salad, tahini & many options to be added, for instance, you could even add french fries into them (but I liked it without). and then just munch on as you continue to drive around the city.

When we moved to Nairobi, I began to miss falafels tremendously & began the search for Arabic restaurants that served falafels on their menu, found a few but nothing compared to the ones we had in Cairo. And one fine afternoon, thinking back, I remembered a television show (cookery channel) I watched while we were in Cairo, that was shot on the river Nile, on a boat. I was fascinated by the whole set up of the show though I couldn’t follow the language. And coincidently the chef was making falafels. I could understand the ingredients and followed the recipe. From then on, my search for falafels at restaurants came to an end as I could make these amazing (Egyptian way, I believe every Arabic country have their version of falafels) at home.

So here in this recipe, the measures are all as per my understanding of the recipe (as it was in Arabic, but believe me it’s delicious) so please feel to modify as per your liking and do make it too.

Falafels

Ingredients

Chickpeas (dry): 2 cups, soaked in water for 8-10 hours

Flat leaf parsley: a medium bunch, approximately 1 cup (or you could use a small bunch of coriander leaves if you don’t find parsley, but the flavor is different)

Peeled garlic: 8-10 cloves

Onion: medium size, roughly chopped

Green chilies: as per taste

Cumin powder: 1 tbsp

Coriander powder: 2tsp

Cumin seeds & coriander seeds: 1 tsp each

Rice flour:2-3tbsp

salt to taste

White sesame seeds (to roll)

Method

Rinse the soaked chickpeas well. Add the chickpeas in a food processor along with the chopped parsley, garlic, onions, green chilies & the seeds. Add in the cumin, coriander powder, rice flour & salt to taste and Mix well. Allow the mixture to stand for 2 hours.

Heat plenty of oil in a deep saucepan or fryer. Shape small balls from the falafel batter. Roll them gently in white sesame seeds and fry in oil until they are golden brown.

Serve warm with Garlic tahini sauce and a hot cuppa mint tea…..

You can also fill them in pita pockets smeared with garlic tahini with some fresh salads, pickled vegetables and make your own tahmeya sandwiches.

Garlic Tahini sauce

Ingredients

Minced Garlic: 1tsp

salt to taste

Tahini: 1/2 cup

Juice of a half lemon

cold water

Method

Crush garlic & salt in a mortar. Mix in the lemon juice. In a bowl, pour tahini along with the lemon, garlic & salt mix, whisking a few tablespoons of water at a time, to get a smooth consistency. The Garlic Tahini sauce is ready. This can be stored in the refrigerator for 7-10 days