Healthy baked falafels
Falafels are delicious morsels of a spicy chickpea (garbanzo bean) mixture deep-fried — therefore they contain large quantities of damaged fat molecules. This is a healthier version, and sprinkling them with olive oil as you remove them from the oven provides the lovely oily mouthfeel without any toxic fat. Although I do not make a habit of rolling food into little balls I have made an exception for these tasty treats. They are best served with a tahini herb dressing in a tortilla with fresh avocado salsa and a variety of green leaves. You can also use sturdy lettuce leaves in place of the tortillas. Although this makes for a very messy meal it’s worth it! If you don’t have a food processor, simply grate the carrots, finely chop the onion and parsley, and mash the chickpeas with a potato masher.
Makes: 25
Ingredients:
- 22/3 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans), or 2 cans (425 grams/15 ounces each), drained
- 1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
- ½ red onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 cup roughly chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon herb salt
- 3 tablespoons either quinoa or amaranth flakes
- 1½ teaspoons psyllium husks
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC/320ºF. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Combine the chickpeas, carrot, onion, parsley, cumin and coriander in a food processor and pulse until you have a loose mixture with most of the ingredients in small chunks. Transfer the mixture to a bigger bowl and toss the herb salt, flakes and psyllium into the bowl and mix thoroughly.
3. Using a ⅛-cup measure (2 tablespoons), divide the mixture into equal quantities and using your hands, shape them into balls and place them on the baking tray. Bake for 45 minutes or until lightly golden in colour. Remove from the oven and drizzle olive oil over the balls and serve immediately.
Variations
1. Replace the chickpeas with cannellini beans.
2. Replace the parsley with fresh coriander (cilantro).
3. Replace the red onion with 3–4 finely chopped spring onions (shallots, scallions), green tips included.
Extracted from Feed Your Brain: the Cookbook by Delia McCabe available from www.exislepublishing.com and wherever good books are sold. RRP $34.99