Falafel
Makes
18
falafelPrep time
30
minutesCooking time
40
minutesCrispy fluffy falafels! I based this off Felicity Cloake’s excellent article here : https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/feb/19/how-to-cook-perfect-falafel
And combined it with the Second Nature Falafel recipe, which was similar but omitted the broad beans and some of the spices
I was really surprised at how well they turned out – deliciously crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside.
Ingredients
150g dried chickpeas – soaked overnight and drained
100g of tinned borlotti beans (or other bean)
4-6 garlic cloves
1 spring onion chopped
1 small carrot grated
1 small bunch of parsley (or coriander) chopped
1.5 tsp salt
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cayenne pepper
0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method
- Blitzed soaked chickpeas in blender till they resemble couscous
- Put rest of the ingredients in the blender and pulse for a minute or two until the mixture resembles a paste
- You may want to chill the mixture for half an hour to make it easier to shape, but I didn’t
- Using two desert spoons, gather enough mixture for a slightly smaller than golf ball size and roll in palms to get it to an even sphere
- Heat a small heavy bottomed pan containing about 2 in of vegetable oil until it’s smoking
- Using a metal fork (or more suitable implement!) carefully lower each ball into the oil. The size of the pan will dictate how many you can fit in at a time. I could manage about 3 or 4 a time. So you will need to fry these in batches. Use the fork to turn them over after a minute or so. The falafel are cooked when they are a medium brown colour.