The paparazzi caught me last Sunday buying herbs from the glorious Sweet Mart in Easton.
Easton in Bristol has three mosques, several churches, one synagogue and one Sikh temple
– in other words my sort of town.
I was buying the herbs to make falafel for a family meal on Easter Monday.
I had spotted the recipe in my mum’s Claudia Roden international Jewish cookery book – I was very taken with it because it uses herbs, and butter beans instead of the traditional chick peas.
Here is my version of the wonderful Claudia Roden‘s recipe
Soak 500g of butter beans overnight and cook for a good hour.
Drain the beans (Claudia says pat them dry too)
Blend the drained beans in a food processor until they become a smooth puree.
Add chopped up onion and garlic, (Claudia says use 8 spring onions instead of onion) and ground spices such as chilli, ground cumin and coriander
(Claudia says 2 tsp of cumin and 2 tsp of ground coriander)
Add washed and drained herbs – I used fresh coriander, mint and fennel (see armfuls above).
Leave the paste for an hour or so to settle.
Then roll into balls
Deep fry and serve with homemade hummus, yogurt with garlic and mint, and grated carrot salad.
My falafel did not turn into hard crispy little balls. I think because
a) I used lots of herbs so they go too wet b) I hate deep-frying so did not use enough oil.
Despite not being crisp, they were
…DELICIOUS
(and even better cold at midnight).
Real Food Lover 
Yum, Yum! I must try these – never been brave enough to try homemade falafel but this recipe would seem to be within my culinary capabilities. Thanks.
And what a charming picture of you armed with all the ingedients.
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Hi Gamb0
Glad you liked the pic!
Yes, I was emboldened to do falafel for a similar reason.
Claudia also suggests adding 1 tsp of baking powder – but I omitted that too as I think you can always taste baking powder.
I’d be very interested to hear how you get on with the crunchy/frying bit.
Thanks for commenting
Grrrrrrreat
Elisabeth
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What a great picture of you, E! You look about 12! How is that possible?
Hubby Daniel came up with a simple recipe: slice eggplants, bake ’em, take ’em out and add cheese (any one you like but not goat cheese), put ’em back in the oven to melt cheese. They turned out all crispy.
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I
AM
12.
And why not with goat’s cheese? For taste or technical reasons?
Seriously – thanks for comp!
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Melted goat cheese never gets crispy, is the only reason! It’s okay on pizza.
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I love Falafel . I made Falafel for over 10 years in my little Deli here in my city where I reside now. Your is so good too . I wrap my Felafel with a whole wheat pita bread . Vegetables ( lettuce , tomato and parsley ) , and put a generous amount of Tahini Sauce on the top of the felafel . Yumy !!!!!
Samy
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HI
I made Roden’s recipe to the letter except for leaving it for an hour to rest and my falafel disintegrated in deep frying oil. I do not know why. To the rest of my chickpea mash I added one egg and one tbsp flour. They did not disintegrated then but they were not very tasty. They were very dry, too.
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do not cook your beans-chickpeas or what ever your using first.
only soak over night and then wizz in the blender with herbs ect.
they cook out in the hot oil but it needs deep frying forr the best ones!
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Hi Mark
Thanks for adding the raw version – great! I have been experimenting with raw food and find it intriguing.
Nice one. Thanks!
Elisabeth
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