Homemade falafel

Because food prices in restaurants in Switzerland are exorbitantly high, when we are home for the weekend, Ryan and I try to prepare 1-2 meals on Sunday that will last us through the week.  One of our frequent rotations for work day lunches is baked homemade falafel.  It is super simple to make, it makes a TON to last throughout the entire week, and it is healthy as it is baked and not fried.

The below recipe makes about 25 falafel. You can make the whole caboodle and freeze some finished falafel for future consumption or you can cut the recipe in half if you want to make less.

Ingredients:

4 cups of canned chickpeas

2 onions

2 heads of garlic (if you don't like garlic, you could do less)

2 teaspoons of salt

Parsley, stems and all (enough to fill 2 packed cups)

Cilantro, stems and all (enough to fill 2 packed cups)

1 tablespoon of baking powder

8 teaspoons of cumin

dash of cayenne

4 teaspoons chili powder

4 tablespoons of flour

Steps: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees farenheit (200 degrees celsius).  Put the onions and garlic into a food processor with the spices and salt and chop until fine.  Transfer the mixture to a big bowl.  Then put the chickpeas with the parsley and cilantro into the food processor and chop until you chunky.  You don't want to create a puree, but you also don't want huge chunks of onion or garlic in your falafel.  You may have to do several batches in the food processor depending on how big yours is.  Mix the chickpea mixture with the onion/garlic mixture and mix in the flour and baking powder.  Coat a baking sheet with a thin layer of olive oil. Hand shape the falafel into golf ball size balls and flatten them out a bit (so that they can fit into pita sandwiches!).  Bake them for approximately 20-30 minutes (flipping over once) until they are lightly browned and cooked through, and voila, simple homemade, healthy falafel.

You can store the finished falafel in a tupperware container for the week (or freeze them like this) 

I fill a tupperware for my lunches at work with 2-3 falafel, lettuce, shredded carrots, tomatoes, and feta cheese.  I bring along a half pita and stuff it with these ingredients to make a pita sandwich.  You can also make a simple tzatziki sauce to add to the pita sandwich (take plain yogurt and add a dash of olive oil, dash of lemon juice, chopped cucumber, clove of garlic, dash of salt and pepper, and dill to taste).