Lunch is by far the crappiest meal, in my palette and belly's opinion. There's a fine balance between eating healthy food at the perfect time of day and feeling full long enough to last until dinner.
Here's the thing. I like a tight menu. I would much rather keep a clean fridge and make the same 4 lunches than have a different meal every day and have food spoil or think about/do meal prep like crazy. Variety is great, but convenience and practicality is more my style.
Prior to introducing falafels to the lunch rotation, our menu looked a bit like this:
Sandwiches
Soups
Plain and boring salads, and
Leftovers
Yes, my lunches are a lot like the food options from grandma's retirement home. It's called comfort food, and that's what we like.
So yep. That's it. Although leftovers are a special treat most of the time, introducing something that would be easy and healthy to put together, practical to store in large batches, and best of all - filling. That was the aim. I know, that's super cliche.
Seriously though there's nothing special about this recipe, and it's not complicated. You can trust me because I refuse to make complicated meals! 😋 I will admit that deep frying is a bit of a pain in the butt though, takes a bit of practice and slightly time consuming. This recipe usually takes me a few days from start to finish - 1 day to soak the chickpeas, 1 day to create the mixture and form the balls, and another day to deep fry them. Maybe if I make this enough I'll find more tricks to speed things up but for now, here’s what you’ll need:
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups dried chickpeas
Large mixing bowl filled with water
1 large bunch of each type of fresh herbs (I used parsley and cilantro)
2 - 3 garlic cloves
Seasonings of your choice (I used garlic salt, salt and pepper)
Large cast iron pot with Canola or other vegetable oil
DIRECTIONS:
Soak your chickpeas in a large bowl of water for 1 day to soften - make sure the bowl is ¾ water and ¼ chickpeas as they’ll soak in a ton of the water. Drain water after 1 day. If the chickpeas are soaked for too long, the mixture will be too soft and cause it to stick to the blades and walls of the blender. 2 days of soaking creates more of a humus texture when you want to aim for crumbly.
Mix chickpeas in a blender so the texture becomes coarse and crumbly yet soft enough to form a ball together.
Add the remaining ingredients to the blender and mix well.
Form mixture into balls and set aside on a sheet or pan. Freeze until frozen throughout. This step is important for deep frying. If the falafels aren't frozen before the hot oil bath, they'll crumble and fall apart as they fry. Your oil, time and falafels will all be lost.
Pour enough oil in the cast iron pot to fully cover the falafels - don’t put them in just yet though!
Heat up the oil a bit higher than medium heat, about 7 or so - cooking with oil is dangerous and although it can feel time consuming, it’s better to heat it slow and steady to prevent bubbling and splashback.
Lightly drop 1 falafel in the oil bath to test the temperature. The oil won’t boil when it's ready like the way water does, it will only begin to boil when food is submerged. If the oil is too hot and you throw many falafels in one go, you’ll end up with a hot oil bubbly mess and it will really smell like a deep fried kitchen. To avoid this, I suggest to fry 3 falafels at a time and turn the fan wayyy up. If you have a kitchen door or window, open it as well.
Once the tester has reached a nice golden brown, fragrant and plenty bubbly, it's time to deep fry some more! Continue deep frying until all done, at a pace of 3 falafels at a time. Let cool a bit before eating.
STORING IN FREEZER - When all the falafels have been cooked and cooled, place in a freezer friendly bag or container. To reheat, turn oven to 400F and place a few on a sheet. Bake until fragrant and toasty, usually no more than 10 minutes.
Have fun and experiment with portions of this recipe. Do you prefer smaller sizes and more quantity falafels to make you feel like you're eating more? Do you want 1 giant falafel to pick apart and mix together? I personally like eating. Actually LOVE it. I could eat and have a sore tummy eat some more if the food is good.. so eating more for less is important to me. I love feeling full with a swollen belly. There's something comforting about it. I personally like the smaller falafels, cutting them in two as I eat so the center is perfectly warm and soft, like a light toasty potato or perogi, paired with the crisp crunchiness of the cool salad greens and creamy sauce. The first time I made this I plopped 11 small falafels in my salad (pic above!) and I was busting at the seems. Lately, I've been satisfied with 6 falafels in my salads, give or take the size. It's been feeling like a good balance.
Another great way to use up the scraps to this recipe once the freezer bag is getting low, use leftovers as sandwich patties. That's right! I made this a couple times when I didn't feel like salad but wanted some delicious falafels. Toast some bread, add mayo, bake your falafel like you normally would then squish it to the center of each toast then lettuce in the middle. BOOM. One of my favorite sandwiches by far.
There's still a while to wait before the herb garden is full grown. Until then, I'm really looking forward making these with all sorts of fresh, vibrant flavors.
Hope you enjoy this as much as I do. I picked it up just a few weeks ago and now it's a permanent staple in my rotation.
Happy cooking!
- Olivia
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