Keeping it green: cauliflower falafels & ‘spinach falafel homous’…

 Following on from making oven baked falafels this week, I, of course, then had a play with the recipe and ingredients. When I made the falafels during the week, I loved the flavours, the uncooked mixture was lovely even before it was cooked.I decided to try out the recipe again replacing the chickpeas with finely chopped cauliflower and some chickpea flour instead of standard plain flour and gluten free baking powder making the patties gluten free and low carb as something different…

So, taking Sadia’s falafels recipe, this is what I did.. 

Ingredients 

1/2 medium cauliflower, chopped into florets 

1/2 of a large onion

3-4 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup baby spinach leaves 

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder 

1/2 tsp pepper powder 

1/2 tsp red chilly powder/ cayenne 

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp gluten free baking powder

3 tbsp besam/chickpea flour 

Method

I chopped the cauliflower to a small crumb in my blender first, then added everything else and blended it all together. I put the mixture in the fridge for a few hours to firm up a bit, it remained pretty sloppy though.

To cook the ‘falafels’ I heated a pan over a low/medium heat and sprayed a fine mist of oil across the base of the pan. 

With my hands, I formed balls of the mixture then placed them into the pan and flattened them. I cooked them until the underside started to brown then carefully turned them over to cook the other side. Keeping the heat low allowed the patties to cook through and firm up the mixture.

As above, I ate the first ones with my own harissa sauce (homemade rose harissa with extra tomato) and crumbled soft goats cheese. I finished the mixture off the next day with grated hard goats cheese.. 

  Keeping the flavours of the mixture in mind, I decided to make some more falafels and then to utilise the flavours in a dip.  Since making the first lot of falafels I had received a parcel of ingredients that I’d ordered including this falafel making tool.. 

  Isn’t it cool? And it looks like it’s made of recycled tin cans so there’s arabic print in the inside of the cup 🙂 

So this is how it works.. 

 

You fill the cup with the mixture, press it firmly into the cup then use the lever to push out the moulded falafel onto a sheet of oiled foil, lining a baking tray, ready to cook. Perfect little oven baked falafels..

Whilst making these, I made the dip: ‘spinach falafel dip’

Ingredients 

200g cooked chickpeas

200g baby spinach 

100g tahini 

1/2 of a large onion

3-4 cloves of garlic

2-3 tbsp lemon juice, to your taste 

2 tsp cumin powder

2 tsp coriander powder 

1/2 tsp red chilly powder/ cayenne 

1 1/2 tsp salt

Water as needed

Method 

Whizz it all up together until smooth, you will have to add the spinach in batches. 

So this was my lunch today: falafels, crisp lettuce, carrot sticks, my spinach dip, my homous and my harissa.  

     

Do you mind if I just say, again….I love my own food!!!! Belatedly, I am bringing this to this week’s Fiesta Friday, co hosted today by the fabulous Michelle and Juju, and hope that everyone fancies trying my concoctions. 

I hope you’ve all had, or are having, a great weekend x x x