Fun With Carbs

I’ve been hooked on falafel ever since I had my first taste of the the Middle Eastern staple about four years ago. Made from ground chickpeas and spices, falafel is crispy, savory and downright addictive. It’s one of my favorite items on the menu at Tapas, which was always our go-to takeout place at courant.com.

A while back, I bought a box of Casbah brand falafel mix in the natural-foods section of Stop n’ Shop. I figured it was worth a try. My first attempt at homemade falafel was a mess.  I’m not sure if it was because I had no food processor in which to blend the chickpeas – or because I forgot the baking soda, causing the lumps to fall apart in the deep fryer. Moving on…

It doesn’t get much easier than this. Add water to the all-natural mix of garbanzo bean flour, enriched flour, baking soda and spices and let the mixture stand for 10 minutes. Use a melon baller or ice cream scoop (I used a stainless steel 2-tbsp measuring spoon) and form the mixture into balls. The box provides both frying and baking instructions.

I love my falafel crispy but I didn’t want to roll out our CoolDaddy fryer. Since it makes the whole house smell like a carnival, or a low-rent fish n’ chips shop, we only use it twice a year or so. Instead, for some crunchiness, I chose to first pan-fry the patties in vegetable oil to give them a nice crust. Then I baked them through for a bit at 375 degrees. It worked beautifully, and I’m sure I saved (a few) calories by not fully immersing them in boiling oil. I’ll continue telling myself that.

Tahini sauce is my absolute favorite falafel topping, but laziness and a time crunch stopped me from traveling to a bigger grocery store to search for it. Instead, I improvised with nonfat yogurt, fresh cucumber, chopped garlic, lemon juice and mint to make an easy tzatziki sauce. There’s something about the tanginess of yogurt that goes well with this.

I served the patties on fresh pita bread with the yogurt sauce, sliced plum tomatoes, mesclun greens and slices of raw white onion. Delicious and easy, and just as good as my favorite Tapas mainstay.