Killer Salad Recipes

I’ve had a tin of chickpeas in my cupboard for a while. Today I decided to use them to make Falafel for lunch. Falafel is a middle eastern food, very tasty and easy to make. The purists among you may frown on tinned chickpeas and opt to soak dried chickpeas overnight, but really, tinned chickpeas are great. Just remember to rinse them well, and if you move them about under running water the skins will fall away so you can remove them.

To make the falafel, rinse and remove the skins from 1 can of chickpeas, place in a bowl and add to it one large onion, chopped and a couple of crushed cloves of garlic. Now add some herbs and spices, I chose to use a good handful of fresh chopped parsley, a teaspoon of cumin, a sprinkle of coriander and a sprinkle of chili powder. Finish off by adding a little salt and pepper. Mix these together and then place it all into a blender. Only blend until the ingredients are well combined, stop before it becomes a puree. Place the mixture back into the bowl and add enough flour to make a dough. I started with 2 tablespoons, then kept adding a little at a time until, mixing with my hand, it had become a dough and didn’t stick to my hand.

Next, I formed small dough balls with the mixture by rolling them in my hands. I made them about the size of a ping pong ball. The dough made 16 falafel balls in total, so I kept 4 to use for my lunch, and covered the rest in cling film and placed them in the fridge. Yes, the kids will have falafel for dinner

To cook the Falafel balls, heat about 3″ of oil in a wok or deep frying pan, once hot place the Falafel balls into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. I kept moving them about making sure they were evenly cooked.

Once the Falafel are golden brown, remove from the oil and place them on some kitchen paper, which will absorb the excess oil.

While the Falafel balls were resting on the kitchen paper, I warmed a pitta bread under the grill, and put together a simple mixed salad of chopped lettuce, sliced red radish, sliced spring or green onions and chopped tomato. Once the pitta bread was warmed through I split it along one side, placed some of the mixed salad inside along with two of the falafel balls which I had sliced. The rest of the salad and remaining two falafel balls I simply placed on the plate.

Enjoy!

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