Sunday, July 1, 2012

The time I almost ate vegan

homemade falafel 2

Just a few days ago, I ate my first falafel ball from Maoz. It was glorious and I enjoyed every bite of my falafel salad.

I made baked falafel a week ago.

homemade falafel

10:00 AM. Nicole looks through the fridge for something to eat. Spots bowl of poorly boiled chickpeas from yesterday.

10:06 AM. Cooks the bland, very hard chickpeas again in salted water for two minutes and lets in rest for fifteen minutes.

10:17 AM. While waiting for the chickpeas, she decides to make a hummus. Looks for a hummus recipe with peanut butter, no tahini.

10:19 AM. Finds a hummus recipe on Serious Eats.

10:21 AM. Rinses the chickpeas in cold water.

10:22 AM. Quick change of heart. Wants something hearty. Decides to taste/make fafael.

10:24 AM. Finds a recipe through The Kitchn. It is from Chow Vegan. She smiles. Vegan = easier clean up.

10:26 AM. Uses food processor to mash chickpeas. Turns out really dry. Adds 3 splashes of the chickpea cooking water. 4. 5. Still dry. Gives it a spin in the food processor again.

10:28 AM. Throws up hands in despair. Takes the chickpeas out of food processor and into a bowl. Dices onions and garlic. Adds it to the mixture.

10:29 AM. Finds all the spices! Uses dried parsley! No cilantro.

10:31 AM. Toasts and burns first batch of coriander seeds.

10:34 AM. Keeps a close eye on the coriander seeds. Fragant and lovely.

10:38 AM. Crushes coriander seeds and add it to the chickpea mixtures.

10:39 AM. Adds lemon juice, olive oil, crushed red pepper, cumin, flour, baking powder.

10:41 AM. Throws out lemon and then quickly regrets not using some zest.

10:42 AM. Adds salt and pepper. Tastes the mixture. Smiles. Uses the food processor again.

10:43 AM. Whirrrrrrlllllll.

10:45 AM. Asks younger brother if he is hungry. "NOOOOO!" Okay. Puts mixture in fridge.

10:47 AM. Waits.

11:10 AM. Writes blog post, eats whole chickpeas, drinks coconut water.

11:56 AM. Brother says he is hungry. She pulls out the bowl from the fridge. Preheats the oven to 375. Places parchment paper on a a cookie sheet. Adds a bit of canola oil and spreads it around.

11:59 AM. Looks for a cookie scoop. No sign of the cookie scoop.

12:03 PM. Finishes forming falafel balls with a plastic gloved hand. Places the balls on the pan and flattens them into thick patties. 9 on a sheet. 4 are in the fridge. Slides pan into the oven.

12:05 PM. Waits.

12:09 PM. Watches Very Mary Kate. Laughs.

12:18 PM. Flips falafels.

12:20 PM. Decides to make a knock off tzatizki with sour cream because she used all the Greek yogurt for her yogurt cake. Uses 2 scoops of sour cream, garlic, salt, dried dill weed. (Make a garlic paste with the salt. Add to the sour cream. Add dill weed. Add more salt to taste.)

12:33 PM. Take falafels out.

12:35 PM. Make sandwiches out of multigrain bread, tzatizki, and a few falafels.

12:40 PM. Gone. Yum.

homemade falafel 3

Recipe from Chow Vegan.

2 comments:

  1. haha, this is great and I love falafel! I'm glad they worked out, even if they were a bit of a pain :)

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  2. I always do that thing with the lemon where I forget to zest it first and then throw it out. Your falafel sounds dleicious! I'm actually trying to go vegetarian for a week so this sounds perfect.

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