I am sitting here in our room in Sydney on the 22nd story of an apartment block looking out over the beautiful Sydney skyline. I don’t think I have ever stayed this high up in a building before and it is quite magnificent.
We just finished up at a 4 day Tony Robbins event: Unleash the Power Within and while I have listened to his cd’s over and over before, seeing him live and the intensity and passion that he brings to the stage is incredible. I feel as though I have just walked out of a 50 hour rock concert! I highly recommend going to one of his live events if you get the chance to.
I will share more about our experience there in a post later on in the week , but first Corey and I are flying out this afternoon to Cape Town to visit my family and attend a friend’s beautiful wedding. I am so fricken excited because it’s been a year and a half since I was at home.
Before I go I want to share this recipe with you for baked falafel. If you have ever tried to make falafel this way and not the traditional way of deep frying them then you may have experienced what I did the first.. oh say 6 times I tried it before I figured out where I as going wrong. In order to still create crispy falafel that aren’t complete mush on the inside you have to use your processor is a specific way. You want to have your herbs finely chopped and the garlic minced, but then when you combine it all you want to just use the pulse action on your processor so that the mixture is still chunky.
I use canned chickpeas and that doesn’t help with the mush aspect so I dry them in the oven first to remove excess moisture. I often make a big batch of these and freeze them to use another time.
- 2 cans chickpeas
- ½ red onion, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 handful fresh coriander, chopped
- 1 handful fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
- 3 Tbls buckwheat four
- 2 Tbls coconut oil
- salt and pepper to season
- Tzatziki
- 1 cup greek yogurt
- ½ English cucumber
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- salt and pepper to season
- 6 pita pockets
- salad
- Preheat the oven to 180C
- Drain the canned chickpeas well then spread them out on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper and place in the oven to dry out for 15 minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.
- Remove the chickpeas from the oven and allow to cool slightly before combining them with the other ingredients in a food processor.
- Process on pulse until the ingredients come together, but the mixture is still quite chunky.
- If the mixture is too "wet", mix in 1 more tablespoon of buckwheat flour.
- Divide the mixture up evenly into small balls then, using your hands, roll the balls, until tightly packed.
- Heat a non stick frying pan over medium to high heat. Add a little coconut oil, then fry the falafel balls in batches until crispy on each side.
- Transfer the crispy falafel to a baking tray lined with grease proof paper and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until heated through.
- To make the tzatziki, grate the cucumber, then wrap the grated cucumber in a few pieces of paper towel and squeeze out the excess liquid. Stir the drained cucumber through the yogurt along with the minced garlic and salt and pepper.
- Serve the falafel with salad in a pita pocket with the tzaziki.
This recipe looks wonderful!!