The Three Best Falafel Recipes, known to man

Considering I gave a whole book to my favourite food in Pizza, Falafel has been underused in the FatLad arsenal, yet it is my number two, all time favourite food.

Turkey Tagine

On the second meal of Christmas a beauty gave to me, a Moroccan dinner for the world to see!

This is a doozy, and even if you don’t have a Tagine, it is really easy to put together, assuming you get the spicing right.

Its a Christmas cracker!

Ingredients

• 3tbsp olive oil
• 1 Turkey Breast Steak
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 Carrots, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1tsp ground ginger 
• 1tsp ground cumin
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 10 ready-to-eat dried apricots, cut into quarters
• 1 tin of Chickpeas
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2tbsp honey 
• Small handful chopped Coriander
• 300ml (½pt) stock

How to make the Tagine

Heat your oven to 170C/325F/Gas Mark 3

1. Put the onions into a large frying pan, and cook until translucent. Add the spices, and get them mixed with the onions.

2. Add to a casserole dish (or Tagine if you have one) with the other vegetables and garlic.

3. Chop the turkey into cubes and fry until they have cooked on each side. Add to the casserole dish.

4. Chop up the apricots and add to the dish along with the chickpeas.

5. Mix the stock with the lemon juice and honey. Pour over the mixture in the casserole dish.

6. Put into the oven and cook for one and a half hours.

Enjoy with some Cous Cous and a drop of my Brussel Sprout coleslaw.

Pesto Falafel

It is true to say that I have been eating Falafel as a staple to my diet for the last few years, and that I absolutely love the stuff.

This recipe came entirely by accident, as I was trying to perfect a chick pea ball recipe, but didn’t add egg to bind, so it turned into Falafel.

It is delicious, especially with some pickle.

Ingredients

• 1 Handful of Basil
• 50g Pine Nuts
• 50g Parmesan Cheese
• 2 Garlic Cloves
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• Juice of one Lemon
• 1 Tin of Chickpeas, drained
• 1 Chilli
• 1tsp Cumin Seed

How to make Pesto Falafel

1. Using a food processor, add the Basil, Nuts, Parmesan, one Garlic Clove, Olive Oil and Lemon juice and blitz until it magically becomes Pesto.

2. Remove into a bowl and put in the fridge overnight.

3. Take the Chickpeas, Garlic Clove, Chilli and Cumin seeds and blitz in the food processor again.

4. Take the Pesto out of the fridge. You will note that the oil and lemon juice has been sucked up into the basil, and is quite thick.

5. Add one tablespoon of the Pesto into the chickpea mix, and then blitz until thoroughly combined.

6. Put the Falafel into a baking dish and put into the oven for 30mins, or until it looks golden.

Enjoy with some vegetables in a flour tortilla.

Falafel

Many moons ago I went to a friends house for some vegetarian food. I had never tried Falafel before, to this day it comes up time and time again as one of my favourite recipes.

This is an amalgam of a few recipes I have tried, but this one is very hard to beat.