Baked Falafel and Tahini Sauce
One of my favorite meals prior to embarking on my current (much healthier) way of eating was falafel from one of a few vendors. What isn’t good about spicy patties made from my favorite of all beans — the garbanzo, a.k.a. chickpea? In particular, one stand in Hamburg, Germany (where I lived for many years), really stood out because of the rich, smoky goodness of their tahini sauce.
I missed falafel for the longest time and then decided to try my hand at making my own baked (not fried) version of falafel, along with tahini sauce to give it depth. In order to make this recipe, you’ll need either a food processor or small food processor (I use the latter), or else the beans will need to be mashed up by hand (in which case I highly recommend making your own beans in a pressure cooker and slightly overcooking them to make the mashing easier to manage).
Notice that I do not add any salt to this (or any other) recipe; we get plenty of sodium from the whole foods we eat, though you can salt to taste if you wish.
Falafel:
- 2 cans no-salt garbanzos, drained (reserve liquid) or 1 lb. cooked garbanzo beans prepared from dried beans
- 2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tbsp. ground cumin
- 2 large bunches Italian parsley, or to taste
- 1 large or 2 small onions
Chop all ingredients finely in a food processor and stir together well. If the mixture is too dry, add a small amount of water or reserved bean juice until mixture resembles a thick dough. Form into balls (I use a teaspoon and roll them by hand) and place on lightly oiled sheet pan. (They can be right next to each other with maybe 1/2″ between them — they don’t tend to run if they’re thick enough.) Bake at 350 for 30 minutes (or until falafel appears somewhat dry and very lightly browned). Serve with tahini sauce.
Tahini Sauce:
- 1/2 c. tahini (sesame paste)
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- Water as needed
Stir together well or blend in food processor. Add water one teaspoon at a time to achieve desired consistency (completely depends on brand of tahini you use). Leftover sauce becomes an excellent salad dressing if thinned down slightly with water.
Serves 2-3
Healthy eating notes:
Look for Maranatha brand raw, unsalted tahini or make your own tahini out of raw sesame seeds in a high-powered blender.
The falafel balls are lovely paired with a huge green salad and a steamed veggie such as broccoli. Sprinkle lemon juice and fresh black pepper on the broccoli and enjoy.
Copyright 2008 Jennifer McCay
www.LeanGreenMama.com
I can’t wait to try this. I love falafel, too!
Kate
Let me know what you think. I am always experimenting and love to try new variations on old recipes.
I love falafel and make them with raw chickpeas that have been soaked. I’ve never tried tahini sauce though, and since yours is Eat to Live friendly, I’m going to give it a try!
When you use raw garbanzos (soaked overnight or for at least several hours, I’d assume?), do you just grind them in a food processor? (I usually pressure-cook a huge batch of garbanzos — easily my favorite of all beans, and I am the Bean Queen so that is saying a lot — so that I can make a couple other things too, but this sounds like it might also work. I just don’t often remember to soak things in advance, hence my love of my pressure cooker.) :) And oh, how I love tahini sauce. I could eat it every single day (and often do!). Hope you enjoy it!
I’m going to try this recipe – thanks for posting it. I’m enjoying your blog. I especially like the conversational and ‘tip friendly’ way you write the recipe so that even a novice cook understands how to do it. Thanks!
Jennifer,
I made the falafel last night, and it was wonderful! Silly me though, I added too much water and ended up having to “pour” the mixture into a glass Pyrex dish and bake at 400 degrees for an hour! haha It still tasted great though, and I will “definitely” be making this again!
Thank you! :)
Glad you enjoyed the falafel … um, loaf. :) I occasionally go overboard with liquid when I make lentil loaf, and it turns into lentil mush, so I sympathize! But it always still tastes good. Legumes are so forgiving!
haha, it sure does Jennifer! This is now a new favorite dish of mine. I can’t wait to introduce it to my family! :)
Okay, so I introduced this to my family over the Memorial Day weekend, and everybody LOVED it!! ….even my brother, who sadly has the very stubborn philosophy of “life is short, have fun and don’t bother with anything healthy,” thought it tasted great! Getting it past him was the ultimate test (and he had no idea it was so healthy, since he knows I don’t worry so much with healthy dishes on special occasions!!)! What I love too is the ease of this recipe – especially if you just make it into a “loaf,” which I “accidently” discovered the first time around! haha Thanks again Jennifer!!! =D
Yay! :) I love it when non-health food people like healthy food. It’s like we’ve pulled off a neat little trick, and yet … most healthy food tastes delicious in the right combinations (the exception being a couple smoothies I tried making early on *lol*) or just plain!