Today’s starter is falafel, a famous street food from the middle east. Falafel are chickpeas and/or fava beans fritters which are served in a pita bread, with a salad or served as it is as a snack. I made these for the first time and Srivalli was my inspiration for this preparation. For the past 3-4 days she has been posting chaat recipes for her Kids Delight – Street Food event and I thought I ought to send something for her event. One of the items on my list for the marathon is moong dal vada or garelu. I thought, why not change the legume and try falafel instead. This is how I made them. I don’t claim this to be an authentic recipe and used the ingredients that were available in my kitchen.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Dry Garbanzo (I used rice cooker measuring cup)
- ¾ cup Dry Fava Beans (I substituted it with Lima Beans & used rice cooker measuring cup)
- 1 small Onion
- 6 Green Chilies
- 3 Cloves Garlic
- Cilantro
- ½ tsp. Jeera
- 1 ½ tsp. Coriander Powder
- ¼ cup water (rice cooker measuring cup)
- 1 ¼ tsp. Salt
- 1 tsp. Chili Powder
- 2 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
Preparation:
- Soak dry garbanzo beans and lima beans separately. Soak them overnight or at least 12 hours.
- Skin the lima beans using your fingers. Press the lima beans between your fingers and the skin will come off.
- Take onions, green chilies, garlic, cilantro, jeera, coriander powder and salt in food processor container and pulse it into coarse paste.
- Add garbanzo beans and pulse it for few seconds until it is a coarse paste. Need not add any water to the beans when processing. Transfer it to bowl.
- My processor bowl is not big enough to process both the beans together so had to do it in two batches. Now take the lima beans and pulse it until smooth adding ¼ cup of water.
- Mix both the beans, ginger garlic paste and chili powder together and taste it. Add more spices if needed.
- Heat oil in a pan. When hot, make patties on a ziploc bag, dro p them carefully into oil and deep fry them on medium heat until brown. I made them in 5-7 batches.
- Another way of making these patties with using your hands is with 2 tablespoons. Take some mixture in a spoon and press it with another spoon to make a nice shape. These patties will look like madeleines. Take the spoon that has the batter in your left hand and the second spoon in your right hand and slow drop the pattie into the oil by pulling it down into the oil with second spoon in your right hand.
- Serve these hot as it is or with some salad.
I am sending these to Kid’s Delight: Street Food, Dish Name Starts with F and MLLA # 32 started by The Well Seasoned Cooked.
Now lets see what the rest of the marathoners have are serving us today.
Starters: Santosh,, Veena
Street Food: PJ
British Cuisine: Padma
Kids Friendly: Azeema, Jay, Pavani, PriyaVaasu, Srivalli,
Rice Varieties: Kamalika, Sowmya, Harini, Smitha
Sweets: Champa
Bookmarked Recipes: Gayathri Kumar, PriyaSuresh, Mina
Special Ones (one each form the above themes): Bhagi, Gayathri Anand,
Priya Mahadevan, Minu, Rujuta, Saraswathi, Savitha, Shobana, Suma,,
I had eaten Falafel in pita in some middle eastern restaurant in Houston. Man that was really good. There was some kind of sauce on the top which I don’t know anything about and that made everything come together so nicely.
It must have been tahini, Champa
WOw! Another Falafel recipe – Lebanese food has always been a huge fav of mine. Interesting Indian twist to it with the jeera.
Good one..do they come out in a dark shade?
I did not like the pictures I took yesterday. Took this picture today with left over falafel and these three falafel turned out dark. They weren’t burnt though.
hav e to make this now..looks yumm
Hi Usha, First same pinch…me to done the same falafel for this 6th day…Love it . If time check my version tooo…
Saras, is it so? I have not checked it out yet. I will do it later today. I did not go around blog hopping yesterday as I was away from my computer most of the day.
Usha,
Gr8 recipe and lovely clicks..
I have not tried the authentic Falafel…so just curious does the authentic version have jeera,ginger garlic paste and coriander powder?
Now following your blog…..
Best Wishes…
Rujuta
http://theworldaccordingtorujuta.blogspot.com/
Rujuta, I searched falafel recipes online before preparing it and most of the recipes called for cumin, coriander powder and garlic. Ginger garlic paste is my addition. Also, most of the recipes called for parsley and I substituted it with cilantro, as we always have it on our fridge. Most of the recipes also called for baking powder and bread crumbs which I skipped.
My fav anytime..love it that much..
Love falafel.Looks very delicious…
I like the way you have presented falafel in a bed of veggies.
Falafel look yumm.. I recently made them too but didn’t use fava beans and shallow fried them instead of deep frying. Will post them soon.
Also the sauce that Champa mentioned does take the dish over the top. This is how I made it: 1/2 cup each of tahini and yogurt, mixed with 1 garlic clove, 1/2tsp ground cumin, some lemon juice & salt and pepper. This sauce is finger licking good. Do give it a try.
There’s another spicy falafel chutney made with red chilies available in Indian grocery. That is yummm too..
Will try your sauce next time.
looks yummy,love the pics..
i love it anytime…love the way u presented it!
yumm
Smitha
http://smithasspicyflavors.blogspot.com/
Lovely presentation and instructions
One more falafel recipe great nice presentation dear.
I have never dared to make falafel. Will surely try this now
Usha, I always wanted to make this..recipe sounds great!
Thanks for the recipe… Love the falafel..
http://krithiskitchen.blogspot.com
Wow ..I have to give it a try .. I love Mediterranean food .. But it is very tough to get those recipes online .. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Is it possible to make them using cooked chickpeas and cooked lima beans. I ask as I dont have a food processor. Thanks
Kathleen, I never tried it with cooked chickpeas or lima beans but I guess you can use it. If using canned chickpeas, drain and pat dry chickpeas with paper towels.