Falafel- Wk9

For this week's cultural dish, I chose to make falafel. Falafel is a Middle Eastern dish and a staple of Levantine cuisine. I love falafel because it is quick and easy to make, as well as delicious.

The ingredients you need for falafel are:

1 (15-oz.) can chickpeas, drained
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 shallot, roughly chopped
2 tbsp. freshly chopped parsley
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil, for frying

Once I had all the ingredients out, it's just a matter of combining them in a food processor and forming them into 2" balls. Then, in a pot, I heated up 1"  of vegetable oil and fried the falafel until it was golden brown. I made sure to only put in 3-4 balls at a time to prevent them from breaking apart. While the falafel was frying, I made a quick yogurt sauce consisting of Greek yogurt, lemon juice, olive oil, dill, salt, and pepper. Finally, I served the falafel in Greek pita and added diced tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce.

Overall, I had a lot of fun making this dish and would definitely make it again. In the future, I think it would be cool to experiment with different sauces, such as tahini, and try out different ways of cooking the falafel such as baking. I could also add in some cilantro or red onion to play with the flavor. In addition to being cheap and quick to make, the falafel mixture can also be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge until you're ready to fry it up.