This weeks recipe was chosen by Elina of Healthy and Sane.  Check out her blog but don’t go there hungry.

This recipe was made in stages.  Ted and I had a busy day so I had given up hope of making these sandwiches.  As it turned out, the recipe lent itself to multi stage preparation.

It was Sunday and we were heading out to visit family but Ted was going on his bike and said “give me an hour and a half head start”.  That worked out great.  I made the tahini sauce,   brought out the dreaded processing machine and gave the Felafel ingredients a whirl. Forming the felafel wasn’t fun because it was a soft, mushy mixture.  Still, I made the balls up quickly and put them in the  fridge.  When we got home from our visit with family, the felafel were ready for the oven and a simple salad plate was put together.   Really easy.

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I have trouble saying “Felafel”.  It seems there should be an extra “L” in there or something?

I didn’t change any ingredient in this recipe.  I simply changed the presentation from chopped tomatoes and cucumbers to sliced. I added a little mint to the plate.  Reduced the serving size to 1/2 a pita, not a whole one.

The Tahini Sauce:  *Should have used a little water.  It was too pasty. 1/2 cup tahini paste blended with 3 TBS lemon juice and add 3 to 4 TBS water (more if necessary).

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The salad plate:  Romaine lettuce, plum tomato slices, and cucumbers.

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The pita: whole wheat

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The felafel:  In a food processor, mix 15 oz cooked chickpeas, 1/4 cup minced onion, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 cup each cilantro and parsley, 1 TBS olive oil. 

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Form above mix into balls. Brush with remaining TBS oil and bake 20 minutes per side.

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Assembly:

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Elina, it was a good pick.  Quite different from what we’re used to.  Unfortunately, I messed up the tahini sauce. It would have been better saucier.  The felafel themselves could have used more oil and were crumbly as leftovers.  Ellie didn’t do her best on this one even though the sandwiches had terrific flavor.

Ted insists he never had felafel as a kid. I don’t believe him.  He’s Lebanese for pete’s sake! 

…….. By the way, who’s “Pete”?

Joanne

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