Falafel

Falafel is another Middle Eastern dish that I have come across in my search of vegetarian appetizers/snacks. It is similar to the South Indian vada in that it is made by soaking and grinding of uncooked chickpeas/fava beans along with parsley,spices and baking soda.It is served with tahini sauce or any other Middle Eastern dip or enclosed in pita pockets.I have recreated the falafel with chickpeas(Source: NYTimes) and it tasted fine and so here it is.

Ingredients:

Chickpeas: ½ cup
Parsley: ¼ cup
Baking soda: a pinch
Onion: 1 small
Garlic: 1-2 cloves lightly crushed
Cumin powder: 3-4 tsp
Coriander Powder: 1 tsp
Salt &Pepper:as per taste
Oil : for deep frying

Preparation:

Soak the chickpeas for around 12-24 hours. Here we are not cooking the chickpeas. So the more it gets soaked,the easier we will be able to grind it. Finely chop the parsley,onion and lightly crush the garlic.

Add to a foodprocessor,drained and cleaned chickpeas,parsley,onion,garlic,baking soda and spices.You can also add salt,but I waited till later for that.Grind these without adding water to obtain a coarse paste. You can add 1-2 tbsp of water if you find it hard or even do in batches.The consistency should be that of vadas.You can also add salt while grinding,but this may make it release water and make the dish difficult to handle and also absorb more oil during frying

Heat oil for frying in a deep pan/kadai and add salt to the chickpea mix and blend well. Drop small pieces of batter in the hot oil and deep fry in hot oil (in batches if needed) till brown on both sides and inside gets cooked as well.

Serve with tahini sauce or hummus or any other choice of dip.A batch of warm falafel is off to Simone where she is having My Legume Affair:Fifth Helping an event started by Susan,the Well seasoned cook.

Taking a batch of falafel lets go door to door (blog to blog) on Recipe Marathon Day #11 on fellow contestants:
1) DK 2) Siri 3) Srivalli 4) Ranji 5)PJ 6)Medha 7)Priya 8)Bhawna 9)Raaji 10)Ruchii 11)Anu 12)Kamala 13)Roopa 14)Divya Kudua 15)Rekha 16)Divya M 17)Lakshmi 18)Raaga 19)LakshmiVenkatesh 20) Sripriya 21)Viji 22)Kamalika 23)Pavani