| Chickpea & Broad Bean Falafels with Pickled Red Onions & Lemon Tahini Sauce | Print |
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Author: Finn
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 5 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- Fafafels
- 100 g dried chickpeas, soaked for 24 hours
- 200 g dried broad beans, soaked for 24 hours
- 1 tsp cumin
- ¼ tsp each of ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
- 1 small bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
- ½ tsp baking powder
- Vegetable oil, for frying
- .
- Pickled Red Onions
- 1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp whole black peppercorns
- .
- Yogurt Tahini Sauce
- ⅓ cup plain yogurt
- 1.5 Tbsp Tbsp tahini paste
- 1 lemon, juice and zest
- .
- Additional Fixin's, build as you like
- Pita wraps, flatbread or naan
- Mixed greens
- Sliced tomato
- Hot sauce
- Pickled hot peppers
- Sliced avocado
- Cucumber, carrots, sprouts, any other veg- load 'er up!
Instructions
- Soak the chickpeas and broad beans in a large bowl of water overnight. You'll want a larger bowl that you think, because those beans are going to grow like those soak-em-grow-em dinosaurs we all got as kids (do they still make those anymore? Or did someone find out they were secretly really harmful like... playing with mercury?). Drain. Cover a large baking sheet with paper towel and spread beans and peas out on it to dry.
- * If you're using fresh broad beans... Shell the beans. Take the pods out and boil in well salted water for 10 minutes. Drain and let cool. Peel the pods, squeezing the ends gently until the tender bean pops out the end.
- In the meantime, let's start those pickled red onions. Mix together vinegar, salt and sugar until the dry ingredients are dissolved. Place onions in a sanitized glass jar and pour vinegar over top. Add peppercorns and top up with water until all the onions are submerged. Set aside at room temperature for an hour to steep. After this, they will be ready to eat. If you're not eating them right away, pop them in the refrigerator to store.
- In a food processor, blitz together your beans and chickpeas until smooth but with a bit of texture. Add spices, green onions, garlic, cilantro and parlsey and whiz again until everything is incorporated. Pour falafel mixture into a large bowl, add baking power and mix well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- In a small bowl, mix yogurt, tahini and lemon juice and zest. Ta da- that's your tahini sauce, done.
- Take chilled falafel mixture and form small balls or patties, roughly 6 cm across.
- Heat oil in a deep pan until it hits roughly 350 degrees.
- Fry the falafel balls in batches, setting the cooked falafels to drain on paper towel or some cooking racks (or, like I do, both!).
- Serve warm falafels drizzled with tahini sauce and topped with pickled red onions. Eat them wrapped up in a pita bread with additional toppings or over top a green salad!
