10.01.12_Baked Falafel Salad

I'm not sure if this is a national trend or just a DC thing but there are so many create-your-own salad concept restaurants now. One of the local places, Sweetgreen, has a salad called the Chic P that which is amazing. On Monday I was randomly craving it and deciding I would try to create my version at home. I decided to go all out and make my own pita chips to crumble over the top and a homemade lemon tahini dressing. I pulled a Sandra Lee and made the falafel semi-homemade my adding mashed chickpeas into a boxed mix before baking them off in the oven. The salad was super delicious and definitely satisfied my craving.

Baked Falafel Salad
Serves 3-4

• Lettuce mix
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled and seeded
• 1/4 red onion, finely minced
• 1/2 cup feta cheese
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (I put half into the falafel mix and the rest onto the salads)
• 2 packages of falafel mix (depends on the brand but two packages made 12 falafel for me)
• pita chips (recipe below)
• homemade lemon tahini dressing (recipe below)

1. Follow the instructions on the box for the falafel. Once you form the balls, bake them in a 350° oven for about 15 minutes, flipping halfway.
2. While the falafel cool, prep the rest of the ingredients.
3. Build the salad with all the ingredients then break the falafel into pieces on top (I used 3 falafel per salad).
4. Top with crumbled pita chips and homemade lemon tahini dressing!

Homemade Pita Chips

• Pita Bread
• Olive oil
• Coarse Sea salt

1. Cut each pita into 6 equal triangles, then split the pita open so you end up with 12 separate chips from each pita.
2. Put the pita onto a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and flip to make sure both sides are evenly coated.
3. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and bake in a 400° oven for 8-10minutes, flipping once. Keep an eye on them and bake them until desired crunchiness!

Homemade Lemon Tahini Dressing
Yields approx. 1/2 cup

• The juice of one lemon
• 3 TBSP olive oil
• 2 TBSP tahini
• 1 TBSP water
• 1 clove of garlic, grated
• dash of cayenne
• salt and pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until combined. Add more oil and/or water if you desire a thinner consistency.

09.12.11_Falafel Burgers

Phillip and I had falafel several times throughout our month of vegetarianism, our first night, and at Lebanese Taverna to name two, but it was definetiely something we both enjoyed. I came across this recipe for Rachael Ray's Falafel Burgers and I thought this would be a fun new way to eat falafel. I also had not made falafel from scratch so I was excited to see that the recipe did not use the box mix.

Making the "batter" was super simple. All I had to do was combine the ingredients (chickpeas, red onion, garlic, flour, cumin, coriander, chili powder, turmeric, and S&P) in a food processor.  I left out the parsley because I didn't have fresh and decided there were enough flavors going on already with all the spices. After all the ingredients were evenly mixed I divided the mixture into four even portions and formed them into patties.

The patties right after they came out of the skillet, top with cucumber slices.

The burgers cooked in oil in a skillet for a few minutes on each side. The recipe calls for 3 minutes on each side. I probably did a little bit longer hoping to get a bit more of a crust on the burgers. We served the burgers in pita with sliced cucumber and instead of the tahini sauce Rachael made we just used store bought spicy hummus. The burgers tasted just like falafel and were just as delicious the next day for lunch. I ate my leftovers on one of the Pepperidge Farm Deli Flats rather than the pita because the pita was so thin it kept falling apart on me during dinner. The Deli Flats tasted just as good though, if not better in my opinion!

08.28.11_Alex's Falafel

Our friend Alex invited us over for dinner on Sunday night. She had been wanting to make falafel from scratch and thought this would be a good opportunity since we had gone vegetarian for the month. When we got over to her apartment she had already made homemade pita bread, a sauce (made of greek yogurt, paprika, and roasted red pepper), Bobby Flay's white bean hummus, and a greek salad (cucumber tomato, red onion, and feta over mixed greens). She soaked the chickpeas and then used her Cuisinart to mix all the ingredients for the falafel. Everything was delicious. Having made the falafel from the box myself on our first day of our vegetarian adventure, I'm not sure if it's worth all the effort to make it from scratch. It looked like a lot of effort to me for a very similar result. Granted, I do not have a jumbo Cuisinart so it definitely would have been even more of an effort for me to make tiny batches of the mixture before frying the falafel balls. It was a fun time and nice to get out of the apartment for a bit after being cooped up all day during the hurricane. Thanks Alex!

08.01.11_Falafel

Let me start out by saying one of the main things that made me agree to going vegetarian was the idea of having to try new recipes and actually plan out my meals in advance. I have become extremely comfortable (or should I say complacent?) opening the refrigerator and whipping something together with whatever I may have at the time. That seems a lot more daunting as a vegetarian, considering dropping meat all together was intimidating enough.

With that being said, our first night of our vegetarian adventure I dived right in with falafel. I thought falafel would be good for multiple reasons: 1) It's something that I have always wanted to make and never got around to doing. 2) I could use some help from the grocery and buy the mix. Yes, I know, it's a cop out but I was making plenty of other things from scratch in my tiny kitchen and did not want to get overwhelmed on Day 1! 3) What better way to not miss meat than by frying something? And most importantly 4) I know Phillip likes it.
As you may have guessed, using the mix was super simple. Just put the mix together, let sit for the time stated on the side of the box, and voilà, you've got falafel mix! I originally tried to make the falafel balls by using a ice cream scooper and a spoon to drop the balls into the frying oil. I quickly realized that if I wanted spherical falafel instead of nondescript blobs I would have to use my hands. After a few tries I got into a rhythm and was impressed by how easy it actually was.

Prior to getting my hands messy in the falafel mix, I had prepped all of the side items (greek-style potato wedges, cucumber, tomato and feta salad, homemade "tzatziki" sauce) and accoutrement (sliced cucumber, lettuce, hummus, pita bread). For the wedges, salad and sauce I looked up basic recipes online to give me a starting point and then added and subtracted ingredients to make it my own. The potato wedges were super simple, tossed in a mixture of olive oil, fresh lemon juice, oregeno, a dash of cayenne, and S&P, roasted in a 425 degree oven. The tzatziki was just greek-style yogurt mixed with 3/4 of a grated English cucumber, garlic, the juice and zest of one lemon, cumin, and S&P. For the salad I just diced a tomato, the rest of the cucumber, and tossed them with feta cheese, oregano and S&P.

The meal turned out great and made for awesome leftovers the next day! I definitely will be making falafel again in the future, and may even venture into homemade falafel and humus if I have more time on the weekend.