Unlike the falafels served at restaurants which have been deep-fried in oil, these falafels are just lightly kissed with a touch of olive oil and baked, making them a very low-fat snack. These are fabulous tucked into a pita pocket with shredded lettuce and fresh tomato, drizzled in Tsatziki.  Or try using the falafel as a meatball substitute in soup or pasta sauce!  The reason why we don't call for canned garbanzos is because they are slightly too soft for falafel.  Fully cooked garbanzos create a hummus-like texture when blended, which is hard to form balls out of.  So undercooked garbanzos work better and yield a more gritty texture.  You can use soaked garbanzos, but these take a long time to soak, so a good time-saving technique is to use lentils or split garbanzos which only need to be brought to a boil and then left to soak for 30-40 minutes.

Falafel Ingredients

2 cups soaked or lightly cooked lentils

    (split chickpeas work too)

1 t baking powder

1 small onion

6 garlic cloves, crushed

1 1/2 T ground cumin

1 1/2 T ground coriander

1/2 t red pepper flakes

2 handfuls parsley, coarsely chopped

1 handful cilantro

Tsatziki Ingredients                                                

2 cups plain, whole fat yogurt

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded & diced

      (1 1/2 cup diced cucumber)

2 green onions, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 T mint, minced

2 T olive oil

Directions

Step 1:  Preheat the oven to 375° F.  Prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 

Step 2:  Place lentils (split chickpeas work as well) in a pot of water and bring to a boil.  Once the water reaches a boil, turn off heat and let them soak while you chop your herbs/onion.

Step 3:  Drain the lentils, rinse well, and add them to a food processor along with the baking powder, onion, garlic, spices and herbs. Pulse to coarsely grind.  Taste the mixture and season with salt/pepper. 

Step 4:  Try to form a ping pong sized ball of the mixture in your hand.  If it is too crumbly and won’t form balls simply blend the mixture more to make it smoother and stickier.   Flatten the falafels just slightly and place them on the baking sheet. You can brush the falafel with a bit of olive oil if you like. 

Step 5:  Bake at 375° F and check at 20 minutes. The falafel should be slightly browned. You may need to cook them for another 5 minutes.  If they still feel a bit soft, don't worry too much, they will continue to dry out as they cool.

Serve with hummus and/or tsatziki sauce with shredded lettuce and pita bread!

For Tsatziki

Makes about 20 falafels