How to make falafel at home: typical recipe from India
The falafel is a croquette made of chickpeas or crushed beans. Forming a dough mixed with herbs and other seasonings, the falafel It is cooked in oil and is commonly served in pita bread with yogurt or tahini sauce; This being a very popular dish in Arab cuisine which, after the rich and diverse cultural interaction today, has reached even the remotest cuisine of the western regions.
The falafel is an original dish of India, where it is cooked with bitter spices on pita bread. The word falafel comes from the word "filfil", meaning pepper and Sanskrit "pippali".
This croquette is made with chickpeas, beans, or a mixture of both; although the Egyptian variant called ta'miya is made exclusively with beans, while other variants use only chickpeas respectively.
What makes falafel different from other vegetarian meatballs is that beans or chickpeas are not cooked; Instead they are soaked until they soften and then crushed by mixing them with herbs and spices to form a paste.
With this dough are made flattened balls that are fried in virgin olive oil, preferably, and can be served in pita bread accompanied by its traditional yogurt sauce or tahina.
Thanks to restaurants specializing in oriental food, this dish has become very popular around the world. This is undoubtedly thanks to its easy preparation in addition to its exquisite and unparalleled flavor.
It is a healthy and gluten-free dish; chickpeas are a great source of protein without saturated fats with a high content of fiber and minerals such as iron, potassium, calcium and magnesium, and fatty acids such as linoleic or better known as omega 6. Thus, the chickpea or beans croquette It is a great 100% healthy alternative for vegetarians.
Original recipe to make falafel
The original falafel recipe is simple to prepare once all the ingredients are available. Next, we offer the recipe and the preparation of this exceptional Hindu dish.
Ingredients:
- ½ kilo of chickpeas
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 medium onions
- 2 tablespoons of baking powder
- Ground pepper (to taste)
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- Parsley (to taste)
- Salt to taste)
- Virgin olive oil (for frying)
Preparation of the falafel:
The first step is to let the raw chickpeas soak in water for a period of no less than 24 hours; this for the sole purpose of softening the seed. Before making the dough, so that they soften and can be well crushed, attention should be paid to the water, since at the beginning they absorb more than half of the volume of it. Note: (The chickpeas must not be cooked, they must be raw to achieve the traditional flavor of the falafel).
After soaking the chickpea seeds or beans for at least 24 hours, they should be extracted from the water and left to rest on absorbent paper; in this way they lose the excess water. The rule dictates that, the drier they remain; most optimal will be for the preparation of the dough.
After resting the chickpeas, we process them in a crusher or blender to get a texture similar to that of sand. The point here is not to excessively crush the material.
We pour them into a large bowl and proceed to peel the onion and remove the outer layer. So, we chop and place it in the crusher, we do the same with the garlic and the parsley, which must be washed before being added to the crusher next to the onion and garlic. After this, we process everything until it is well crushed and we add it to the container where we have the ground chickpea.
Add salt and pepper to taste, ground cumin and yeast. Mix well until you get a uniform dough. Subsequently, cover the dough and let it stand at room temperature for one hour.
After one hour of rest the yeast will have taken effect. We proceed to form the falafel with our hands; for this we take a little dough making a ball of about 5 centimeters and then crush it a little giving it the characteristic shape of the falafel.
Place the olive oil in a pan and when it is uniformly hot we fry the falafel. The oil should cover them and they should be fried for around 5 minutes, remaining crispy and dark on the outside and soft on the inside. Finally, we arrange them on a plate with absorbent paper to remove excess oil and serve hot.
This dish is traditionally served with pita bread and yogurt or tahini sauce and can be decorated with pieces of parsley on top. Enjoy your meal!. ThemesVegan Vegan Recipes
