Italy meets Spain Falafel

With determined effort, we are not eating as much meat as we used to. That isn’t to say that we avoid it at all costs, but it is definitely far less often for sure. Most of our meals are made up of seafood, beans and pulses. I can’t say that it’s been easy, my tried and true recipes usually include meat, and it has been a challenge to make our meals interesting. JT recently mentioned he would love to have Romesco sauce again so I decided to incorporate it into our latest experiment, Italy meets Spain Falafel. I called it “Italy meets Spain” because I used Pesto as the flavouring and topped it with Romesco sauce.

The shape is rather unique for Falafels, it is more like a doughnut than the traditional disk but notwithstanding, it makes a tasty pan-fried falafel!

Italy meets Spain Falafel

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes about 24 x 20 g portions

Please click here to print recipe.

Ingredients:

• 75 g dried chickpeas, soaked, cooked and cooled
• 50 g dried navy beans, soaked, cooked and cooled
• 50 g onion, roughly chopped
• 4 tbsp pesto (I used almond pesto)
• 5 g garlic, minced
• handful of parsley leaves
• oregano, to taste (I used fresh)
• 15 g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 7 g coconut flour
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of half of the lemon
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 large egg, lightly whisked
• 30 g sesame seeds

Directions:

1. In a large food processor bowl, combine everything but the sesame seeds and process until it becomes a smooth paste.
2. Prepare a baking sheet by lining with a piece of parchment. Form the paste into 24 equal-sized portions (I used a doughnut form for these but it’s not necessary). Set each patty onto a sheet of parchment. Continue until complete.
3. Dip one side of each patty into the sesame seeds (no need for an egg wash, they’ll stick without it).
4. Pan fry each patty on a non-stick pan lightly sprayed with oil for 4-6 minutes per side, making sure the sesame seeds have caramelized and the internal temperature is 190° F.
5. Serve warm with a drizzle of romesco sauce.

Moist and flavourful falafel.

My My dear friend Barb gave me this falafel press some time ago.

Notes:

• Beans cooked weight equals roughly 270 g.
• Serving suggestions: bed of wilted kale with romesco sauce, bed of spinach with romesco sauce.
• These falafel freeze well.

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“Unfried” Garbonzo Beans (or chick peas)

This recipe nothing new. You’ve seen it posted a million times on a million blogs (OK, maybe I exaggerate!). And I wasn’t going to post about it, but it turned out SO WELL so I kinda felt like I had to. I’ve made the oven roasted garbanzo beans (chickpeas) before and although they were pretty good, they didn’t have the crispy crunch that I had been lead to believe they would. Sure they were crisp on the exterior but the interior was rather pasty. These beans are crunchy through and through! In fact, if I hadn’t “unfried” them, I would not, could not, have believed that they were not deep fried. Yes, you read that correctly, my dear friend: they are UNFRIED.

Some time back, I cooked for a short testimonial-piece for the T-Fal ActiFry Express XL appliance (not published yet) where I had to cook twelve dishes in advance for an on-location motion shoot with a local celebrity. The great folks at T-fal gave me an ActiFry Express XL for the job. I started cooking at 5am so that food would look fresher than cooking it the night before and left just in the nick of time to get there (far end of town). We got the house at 12:30 and had to be out at 3:30! It was challenging, to say the least, particularly because the kitchen was the commercial set! I had to prep on the floor in the hall, and at one point, in the garage so that I could have access to an electrical outlet! That profession kitchen truck would have come in very handy!

JT and I are not big on fried foods, so this cool appliance is perfect for us and recently I needed a cocktail snack for the cottage and I wanted something healthy with protein and crispy garbanzo beans (chick peas) popped into my head. I thought the beans would be perfect for the ActiFry (see notes). So I purchased two 540 mL (19 oz) cans of low sodium chick peas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and dried them on a clean towel and popped them into the non-stick coated ActiFry. The result was magical, it did not dehydrate the beans (which sometimes makes them a bit leathery), it actually fried them in 1 tbsp oil! They are crunchy through and through! And the next best part? I didn’t have to turn on the oven because it was 30° C (86° F) outside and humid! And cleanup was a cinch (I vacuumed it and wiped it out with a soft cloth).

I know that this recipe will be a repeat for all parties from now on!

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes ~250 g or 2 cups unfried garbanzo beans (chick peas)

Ingredients:

• 540 mL (19 oz) cans of low sodium chick peas
• 1 tbsp dehydrated onion powder (see notes)
• 1 tbsp granulated garlic (see notes)
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• dash of sesame oil

Directions:

1. Combine all of the spices and salt and mix well.
2. Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans (chick peas) and lay out on a clean towel to dry for 30 minutes).
3. Add the dried beans to the ActiFry bowl and drizzle in the oils. Set the timer to 45 minutes and close the lid. Start, allow the paddle to rotate a full circle and open the lid and sprinkle about 1/3 of the spice blend onto the beans. Close the lid and allow the paddle to go around twice. Repeat until all of the spice blend is used up. Close the lid and wait for the magic to happen.
4. Test the beans around 35 minutes and then about 5-minute increments. You want a crunch, much like the crunch you get when you eat potato chips. Keep it going until you achieve a great, crunchy bean.
5. Pour the beans out onto a clean cookie sheet (with sides) and allow to cool. Store in an air-tight container in the fridge until needed (it was too humid to store in the pantry).

Notes:

• I keep a container of Kirkland Signatur Chopped Onion and I combine it with Kirkland Signatur Granulated Garlic (not garlic powder) and blitz it in a coffee come spice grinder for this purpose (great on popcorn too!).
• Be creative and come up with your own blend of spices, like garlic, ginger and sea salt.
• I did not have time to use dried beans but feel free to soak, dry and ActiFry dried beans, I’m sure the result would be the same.
• Although the ActiFry paddle moves around at a very slow pace, I find larger things get a bit beat up without the stationery tray but it’s perfect for these beans.

Disclosure:

Eva Taylor/Kitcheninspirations received T-fal ActiFry Express XL from Group SEB, Toronto; this recipe was developed by Eva Taylor for Kitcheninspirations, and the opinions expressed in this post are that of Eva Taylor/Kitcheninspirations.

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