Hey guys, welcome back to Dede’s Mediterranean Kitchen. Today I’m going to be making a recipe to fulfill all the requests I’ve got in, to make Falafel from scratch. Yes, I said it. We’re making falafel from scratch. My other recipe, I was trying to help you guys out and show you how to make it out of the box, really easy, really quick. For those of you guys who are in a hurry and don’t have a lot of time, you just want a nice falafel sandwich. Or for those of you who want to learn how to make it from scratch, I’m doing that today. Now remember you can get this recipe and all my other recipes at www.DedeMed.com.
Now what we’re going to start off with is hummus and fava beans. Now hummus, hummus beans are garbanzo beans, you want to cups of garbanzo beans and a cup and a half of fava beans. When you start off, when you buy them, they’re really small and they’re going to be dry. You’re going to want to soak them overnight before you do this. So if you know you’re going to be making falafel the next day, soak your beans the night before. When you soak them they’re going to double in size just like that. You have one that’s this big and one that’s this big. See the difference? Same thing with the fava beans, they double in size because they absorbed all the water.
What we’re going to do, we’re going to start off by blending these in a food processor until they’re very crumbly. Now you don’t want to do it out of the can only because the garbanzo beans or chick peas that are out of the can have a lot of preservatives in them and they’re a little bit too wet for the falafel. And the mixture will become too moist and it will fall apart on you when you’re trying to fry them.
Now, we used a spoon to bring on the side to make sure that they all get blended the same way. You want to get a large bowl, and you want to empty them into the large bowl. Let me show you. Look how crumbly the mixture is. They’re not a paste. They’re just very crumbly. Now while you’re doing all of these, you want to heat about an inch of oil in a pan. Vegetable oil or corn oil, as long as it’s a vegetable oil, that’s fine. Put it on low heat and let the oil just warm up while you prepare this.
And the next thing we’re going to do is we’re going to blend the fava beans. Make sure you buy the peeled fava beans. I know that sometimes they sell them unpeeled. You want them peeled. Juts put them in the blender and blend them the same way that you did with the garbanzo beans.
Now take out the lid. The fava beans, and they are the same texture as the hummus, or as, well we call it hummus in Arabic bit they’re calling it chick peas or garbanzo beans. And these are fava beans. We use a lot of beans in Middle Eastern or Mediterranean cooking, because I’m sure you’ve noticed. Now you have them in a nice bowl. Just mix it up with a spoon. Next we’re going to blend the other ingredients in the blender and then add it to this mixture.
Ok, we are halfway there. Next thing you’re going to need, also you’re going to blend it in the food processor, is one big yellow onion. I just chopped it up coarsely, just so that it fits in the food processor. You’re going to also need one whole bunch of cilantro or about two cups. Make sure you wash them, rinse them out really well. You don’t have to chop them up for anything because we’re going to put them in the food processor. And you want one cup or half a bunch of parsley. Flatly, Italian parsley is the best. It has a lot of flavor. The main ingredient, the best ingredient in the world, garlic, eight nice cloves of garlic, minced. If you already have your garlic minced, you want two large tablespoons of garlic. Garlic’s amazing. It adds great aroma and great, it adds a great element to the dish. It’s great. So let’s put all these in the food processor and then we’re going to blend them up. Make sure they all fit in here. Stuff them in. You add the garlic and then just blend it up until it’s well combined.
Ok, now that that’s done, we’re going to add it to the bean mixture. Make sure not to lose any of the onion or garlic. Mmm, this is so good. It’s so all worth it. So all of you fans out there who’ve been emailing me and telling me “Please make the other falafel” or “Please make it from scratch, please, please, please”. I am doing this for you. So we’ve add this.
Next thing we’re going to add to this is of a half cup of regular non-seasoned bread crumbs, just a half cup. You want two teaspoons of salt just like that. See, you want one large tablespoon of coriander. You want one teaspoon of cumin. And then you want a half a teaspoon, or quarter teaspoon I’m sorry, of cayenne pepper. Cayenne pepper adds a little bit of a kick. If you don’t like anything spicy, you don’t have to add it. So let’s just add this to it. And then we’re going to add freshly ground black pepper, just about a quarter teaspoon, half a teaspoon.
Now you want to combine everything. Make sure you combine it very well. Now if you see the mixture is a little bit too dry, you can add a tablespoon or so of water. Let’s see. Now I have the oil heating, medium to low heat, because you want the falafel to cook all the way through. Now I have a falafel maker and I have two spoons. I’m going to show you how to make it both ways.
You also want a dish with a paper towel on it to absorb any extra oil. You don’t want them to come out too oily. So you get that falafel, put it in the mold just like that. This is how they make it the restaurants. Make all nice, and you just want to drop it in, just like that. Let me show you how to make you at two spoons. If you don’t have the mold, that’s fine. If you buy the box from my website, it actually comes with the falafel maker, the falafel mold. But if you have two spoons, then you don’t need it. Look at that. You can just mold up two spoons and you have little round falafel, and just drop it in.
Now I’ve fried up some of the falafel. Look how nice and pretty they are. They’re nice and crispy. Make sure that if you’re going to be making the falafel, make it right before your guests arrive or right before you want to serve it. You don’t want to make it too in advance because if you have to reheat it in the oven, it becomes chewy, it becomes not crispy. I mean it’s beautifully crispy. You can feel it and it smells amazing. I’m going to serve it up in a pretty dish. I’m going to serve it with our tahini sauce. Now you can get this recipe on my website at www.DedeMed.com so don’t forget that. Just pile it up in a dish, get some tahini sauce, and drizzle it around. And you can serve this with pita bread. You can serve it just with the salad, just like that. Oops I got a little bit of a mess. It’s ok. I want to sprinkle some parsley on top and then some green onions, or shallots. It’s beautiful. There you go. You have original, homemade falafel from scratch.
Write me. I want to know how your recipe turns out. I want to make sure that you guys are making this up and showing it off to all of your friends. Enjoy, and join me again for Dede’s Mediterranean Kitchen.