How To Make Falafel

Falafel is a Middle Eastern recipe, which is usually a form of appetizer made up of balls or patties of ground chickpeas or fava beans. It is served in a pita acting as a pocket or wrapped in flat bread known as lafa. Topped with salads, pickled vegetables, hot tahini based sauce or yoghurt, the falafel balls can either be eaten alone as snacks or served as part of a mezze. The dish is said to have originated in Egypt and is now found all over the globe as a replacement for meat and a form of street food. Israel considers falafel to be their national snack and this has been a cause of resentment for Palestinians, who consider the dish to be authentically Arabic. Since falafel is made up of chickpeas, it is high in protein, complex carbohydrates and fiber. It is also low in fat, cholesterol and salt. Learn how to prepare this delicious yet nutritious dish for your family.

Falafel Recipe

Ingredients

For Pita Bread

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp crumbled Fresh Yeast
½ tsp Sugar
½ tsp Salt

For The Dressing

6 tbsp Low Fat Curd
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Spring Onions (chopped)
Salt

For The Patties

1 cup White Chick Peas (soaked)
1 Green Chilly (chopped)
½ cup Mint Leaves (chopped)
½ tsp Garlic (grated)
½ cup Cabbage (grated)
1 cup Carrot (grated)
¼ cup Capsicum (finely chopped)
½ tsp Cumin Seeds Powder (roasted)
Salt
1 tsp Oil

Other Ingredients

2 Tomatoes (thinly sliced)
1 cup Shredded Lettuce

Preparation

For Pita Bread

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl along with water and knead it for 5-7 minutes until it becomes a semi-soft dough. It should be smooth and elastic in texture.
Now, cover the dough with a wet muslin cloth for about 15-20 minutes until it doubles in volume.
Gently press the dough to remove the air within and divide it into six equal parts.
Carefully roll out each of the six portions into a circle with a diameter of approximately 6 inches and thickness of 1/6 inches.
Take a griddle and heat it until hot. Now, place the circle made out of dough on each side over the griddle for a minute, until the bread begins to puff.
Once the bread looks puffed, remove it from the griddle and repeat the procedure with the remaining circled dough to make more pita breads.
Once you are done with it, cut each pita bread into two equal halves and keep it aside.

For The Dressing

In order to prepare the dressing, blend all the above mentioned ingredients in a liquidizer and make a smooth sauce out of them. Then refrigerate the sauce.

For The Patties

First of all, drain the water from the white chick peas.
Grind the chick peas along with green chilies and mint leaves in a blender to form a coarse paste, without using water at all.
Now add the remaining ingredients to the mixture and mix them well.
The mixture now needs to be divided into 12 equal parts and shaped in the form of patties.
Take a pan and heat oil in it. Cook the patties until they turn golden brown in color.
Remove them from the pan and drain the excess oil on an absorbent paper and keep aside.

For the Falafel

Warm the pita bread halves already prepared by you on a hot griddle.
Each of the pita bread half is to be filled with sliced tomatoes and shredded lettuce, one patty and a spoonful of the cold dressing on top.
Once the garnishing is done with the dressing, the falafel should be immediately served.

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