Tuesday, November 11, 2008

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

24 Comments:

Bhawana said...

looking yummy :). deliicious snacks.

A Kamalika Krishmy said...

Very inviting .. wish to try this .. soon .. you have a heterogenous collection of receipes..

Kitchen Chronicles said...

Looks yummy.

lubnakarim06 said...

Wow looks yummy. What a coincedence dear. I too made a veggie snack and you too. Hmm same pinch....

Unknown said...

Nver tried falafel in my kitchen , but I love their taste:)

Priya Suresh said...

I love falafel...delicious snacks..very inviting..

raaji said...

I love them.....they sound just like our vadas ......

Medhaa said...

looks delicious

anudivya said...

Looking good! Never made falafel at home, get the veggie patch ones from Costco and make do with them. I love your recipe.

Cham said...

yeah that reminds ur masala vada ... Love the color of ur falafel ...

kamala said...

I love to eat like the vadas..delicious

Yasmeen said...

Falafel is our family favorite with Pita and Hummus,YUM!

Unknown said...

Chickpeas and deepfrying, its heavenly. I had tried baked version of it and it was good too.

Madhu/ruchii

Deepthi Shankar said...

looks delicious .. I too love falafel but I prefer the Indian Dal vada any day

Vikis Kitchen said...

Looks delicious and easy to do. Good recipe

Malar Gandhi said...

I love them...you did a great job.

Vaishali said...

Felafel is an old favorite. What's not to love in deep-fried chickpeas? Yours looks delicious, Curry Leaf.

Usha said...

Looks delicious, I used to make this often but haven't made this for quite a while now, your pics are tempting me to make this again:-)

Cynthia said...

I love chickpeas but have never tried making these. Now I've seen yours maybe it's time I give it a try.

Hope you are doing well.

Unknown said...

looks so perfect from long time in my to do list no i have to finish them u r tempting me a lot dear

Sunshinemom said...

I love this a lot too!! Easy and tasty:)

Divya said...

wow looks yummy....feel like grabbing it...

Divya Kudua said...

yummy..it sure looks like Vadas..;-)

Simona Carini said...

Your falafel look very nice. Thanks for participating.

Thanks for visiting my Blog

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