Hey how did it go? After your disaster with chickpeas, I decided not to try with pinto beans.
Though now I am hungry for pinto beans.

Its not completed yet. The mix is in the (very cold) fridge at the moment. I'm off to visit a friend tomorrow. The mix goes with me and I'll try it out there!
 
Chickpea felafel

Soaked chickpeas all day, into the food processor with garlic, parsley, salt, white pepper & cumin plus some bicarb.

Processed for 3-4 minutes, scraping the sides every minute or so. I ended up adding 2 tbls of cooled boiled water to make it form a paste.


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Well, I decided to have a go tonight. I had to use canned chickpeas, so I rinsed them well and then let them drain for a while. The mixture seemed very dry to me, but the falafels were fine, although a couple of them started to break up when I cooked them (I reshaped them and popped them back in the pan to finish cooking!). I had them with flat breads, a kohlrabi and carrot salad, and a yoghurt and mint dip. It was supposed to be enough for two - who were they trying to kid? But next time I have a go, I might put a bit more chilli in them or put cucumber in the dip instead of the mint - it was home grown, and even the little bit I used seemed to be a bit overpowering.

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Well done @Frizz1974! You are first one up. I still haven't made mine but I'm having a go tomorrow. Have you made Falafel before? How was the texture and taste?
A little dense and dry. I normally add carrot which lightens it a little. I might make some more tomorrow.

I've made them a few times before with varying degrees of success.

You can buy a "just add water" mix here in a box, that is sold in middle eastern groceries.
 
In my usual style, these were actually done a week last Sunday (2nd July), and I haven't had the time to process the photos, upload them or write about it.... they were 50:50 chickpeas: white beans. It would have been chickpeas: fava beans but my husband came home with lima beans (again...) I forgot to photo the first (round traditionally shaped) batch and only remembered the 2nd batch whilst the oil was reheating, and then whilst they were frying. I forgot to photo them afterwards! Oops

So...
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4 round ones, 9 done flatter for easier frying and 3 left over from the first batch (the remainder were sausage shaped by the way, not round...)
The green is from the fresh parsley and fresh coriander used in my recipe caused by using the food processor, but my recipe states this is normal, so how am I to argue!

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The 9 pattie style falafels and the 4 traditionally shaped ones that I remembered to photo (along with a dirty well used gas hob and oil splatters as well!)

The mixture was a touch wet despite no extra water being added and the skins removed from the white (lima) beans. They needed a touch more salt than I added and tbh I used the wrong oil to frying them. I needed something with a much hotter. And we would have preferred them a touch spicier but they were very quickly devoured over the course of two days across 2 meals each... so that made 8 servings.

The hope is that I will be trying again tomorrow, if I remember to soak the chickpeas overnight. This next batch will be 100% chickpeas because we have still been unable to source dried fava beans. I have been considering defrosting frozen broad beans and deskinning them to try that but that can be experiment number 3. I'll add my recipe as a new thread and link back here tomorrow now, because my hubby is home and the laptop gets turned off when he gets home.

This is the recipe I based mine on, or more accurately, this is my revised recipe based around the Vegistan (a cookbook) recipe for Falafel - there is no online version of this recipe that I have yet to find.
https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/vegistan-based-falafel.10372/
 
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Round 2 was carried out today and was very successful. I have adapted the original recipe quite a bit (with spices mainly but also some besan flour because the onion being food processed add moisture, so I only processed half the onion and very finely sliced the other half). I also added black pepper corns, black mustard seeds, fresh turmeric, and some ground coriander. That and a touch more salt that last time (I rarely add salt to anything!) and they are a winner in this household. They hold together beautifully and cooked up really well.

This time I remembered to photo the final product as well - though these are from my husband's tablet rather than my camera because it was complaining about another night of -8C and no power in the battery (again!) the top photo the 'falafel' is broken in 2, the bottom one is (sorry about this but it was in the name of science honest) bitten into!

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My revised recipe is here https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/vegistan-based-falafel-revised.10381 If you don't like it spicy, cut out the black pepper corns, mustard seeds, and some of the chilli powder.
 
Curiously I have come across this recipe... http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-green-pea-and-chickpea-falafel-230089 It uses both garden peas and chickpeas, though they specify tinned but I reckon you could easily substitute them for soaked chickpeas. I rather like the idea of using garden peas in the recipe. It ties in quite well with using fava beans (traditionally the Egyptian or is it Moroccan way) to make falafel.
 
Well, you know what? The Falafel Cookalong is drawing to a close and I'm going to have to declare that I'm a Falafel failure! My third attempt was better but still not right. They are still too hard and crunchy on the outside (due to the beans not being soft enough) and too crunchy on the inside. They were eatable but not something I'd want again.

I soaked the fava beans for 48 hours for good measure. I pulverised them in a food chopper and a pestle and mortar. I could assume that I need a more powerful food processor - but Falafel have been made for centuries, long before food processors existed. I just don't get it. Its just possible that the beans were old - even though I bought them recently. But even so... :cry:

Congratulations to all of you who joined in. Well done! :bravo:

I hate the photo - but I will post it. Next time round we choose a more photogenic dish!

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