While visiting my parents over the weekend, my dad said that he’d never had a falafel before and didn’t even know what was in it.  I told him that I would make them the next time they visited and, true to my word, I made them tonight.  They ate ‘em up and even took some leftovers home.  They are so incredibly easy to make.  I wonder why we don’t have them more often?!

I’ve been using the same falafel recipe for a few years now and I’m not sure where it came from originally.  Sorry for not giving any credit to the original creator of my falafel recipe.

Falafel

2 green onions, cut into 1 inch pieces

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

1/4 cup fresh mint

1 15-oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I use whole wheat)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp Tabasco sauce

1 TB olive oil

Put everything into a food processor and process until smooth.  You can either make them into patties or balls.  I use a cookie scooper and scoop them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown.  You can also pan fry them, but I usually end up making a huge mess when I go that route– baking is much easier and less fatty.

Not the most attractive photo, I know (my plate is on an Elmo placement, by the way, in case you were wondering about all those words).  I served ours up on top of some middle eastern flatbread that I can always find at Trader Joe’s, topped with chopped lettuce, tomatoes, and some dill pickles.  I know, the dill pickles sound like an odd topping for falafels, but they are really quite tasty.  The sauce that I make to go with the falafels is made from 2 TB mayo (or vegan mayo), 2 TB Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream (thanks to Amy’s tip, I was able to find some at Whole Foods), juice of 1 lemon, 1/2 cup chopped cucumber, and about 2 TB chopped fresh dill.  Combine all of those ingredients and thin it out a bit with some plain rice (or soy) milk until it is the right consistency.

On the side, I threw together a quick tabbouleh, which turned out really good.

Tabbouleh

1/2 cup bulgar

1 cup water

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

1 cup chopped kale

1 cup chopped cucumber

1 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1 cup diced red onion, soaked in several changes of water (optional, but I find that doing this removes the raw onion after taste)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

S&P to taste

Cook the bulgar in the water.  Meanwhile, put all of the other ingredients into a bowl.  When the bulgar is cooked, add it in and stir.  Taste for seasoning and adjust, if necessary.

I know that kale isn’t a traditional tabbouleh ingredient, but it really has no flavor when it is raw (at least to me it doesn’t) and I thought it would be a good addition here to boost the nutrition of the dish.  The only thing it contributed was extra vitamins and fiber– if I hadn’t known it was in there, I wouldn’t have thought that anything was amiss.

I wasn’t really in the mood to cook anything last night, so I decided that some frozen veggie burgers were the way to go. The burgers were a “tex mex” variety- with corn, black beans, etc., and I decided to try out Carrie’s twist on tabbouleh for a side dish. I didn’t have her recipe in front of me and I was too lazy to turn on the computer, so I decided to wing it. The outcome was awesome! The leftovers are even better. Here is how I made my version of Carrie’s version of Mexican style tabbouleh :

Mexican Style Tabbouleh Salad

1/2 cup bulgur wheat

1 cup water

1 cup frozen corn kernals

1 cup beans (any kind will do)

1/2 red onion, diced and soaked in several changes of water *

1/2 tomato, diced

1/2 mango, diced

1/2 cup cilantro

juice of 3 limes

1/4 cup olive oil

Put the bulgur in a pot with the water and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 15 minutes until the water is adsorbed. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, add the frozen corn (no need to defrost- the hot bulgur will do that for you), beans, tomato, onion, mango and cilantro. When the bulgur is cooked, add it to the bowl too. Add the lime juice, olive oil and S&P. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

* I really don’t care for raw onion too much, mostly because of the gross after taste it leaves in my mouth. I find that by soaking raw onion in several changes of water before I add it to a salad, it helps to counteract the yucky after taste.

I especially loved the addition of the mango. When I was a kid, my mom would make pasta salad in the summertime and would either add in some chopped nectarine or some grapes. It was so tasty to have a sweet bite of fruit in the middle of a savory, refreshing salad and I thought the mango would serve the same purpose here. If I would have had a jalapeño on hand, I may had added it as well. I will totally be making this again!