Falafel

Falafel is our traditional “take away sandwich”. It is like a vegetarian hamburger made in the Lebanese way. I remember when I was in complementary school, during our long  lunch break once a week, two of my best friends and I managed to escape from school to go down town and buy a Falafel sandwich and a bottle of Pepsi Cola, and we would come back to school and enjoy our lunch. I was amazed by the way the man could fry them so fast and then roll them quickly with vegetables in the pita to make a delicious sandwich. And above all this, I was totally in love with the smell of the frying pieces of Falafel.

I thought that it was very complicated to make them at home. But when I grew up I figured out the recipe so I can enjoy eating them any time I wanted to right at home.

A few years ago however, I found the perfect recipe for a home made Falafel. I want to share this with you.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of chick peas
• 2 cups of crushed beans(fava beans)
• 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander
• 1 tablespoon Falafel spices
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 onion
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3 cloves of crushed garlic
• oil for frying

Preparation:

• Soak the chick peas and the crushed beans separately in 2 bowls of water for 24 hours
• Drain the water and place them, separately in a food processor and mix well
• Mix the crushed garlic with the fresh coriander and the onion
• Mix all the ingredients together, season with salt, Falafel spices and the baking soda
• Heat the oil, take a small piece of the Falafel mixture and put it in the special dispenser (called aleb falafel) and deep fry them until brown color
• You can eat them with all kinds of vegetables you like: tomatoes, parsley, onion, pickles and lettuce, but the most important is the dip for the Falafel, the taratour

The dip(Taratour preparation):

• Crush 2 cloves of garlic with salt, add 1 cup of tahini and mix with about 2 cups of water, then press 1 lemon and mix it with them
• Adjust the lemon and salt to your taste.

ET VOILA…C’EST TOUT:)