Falafel with Tahini sauce

While I am writing this post, my kiddo is all over me. He crawls here and there, takes out everything, making me busy behind him. Nowadays it take approximately 2- 3 days for me to write a blog post. So please excuse me for the delay.

From sooo long, I was thinking of making this falafel, but due to something or the other I couldn’t try this out. This Ramadan, for iftar snacks I finally got the opportunity to try this out and it tasted amazing.

Falafel is a deep fried middle eastern fried balls or patties. This is a wonderful and amazing evening snack which will be loved by all. These falafels are usually round fried balls but I made them as patties for my little one who loves cutlets a lot.

There are so many places where we get falafels in Bangalore, I tried one of these and loved it. Falafels when eaten along with tahini sauce will be mind blowing. Tahini sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for about 3 months in an airtight container.

Ingredients:

1. Chick peas- 250 gms
2. Onions- 2 nos
3. Green Chillies- 3 nos
4. Coriander leaves- 3- 4 tbsps
5. Garlic- 7-8 cloves
6. Red Chilli Powder- ½ tsp
7. Coriander Powder- 1 tsp
8. Salt- as required
9. Cumin Powder- ½ tsp
10. All Purpose Flour- 1 tbsp
11. Lemon Juice- 1 tbsp
12. Oil- for deep frying

Method:

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight and next day boil these till soft. When cooled, drain and keep this aside.
2. In a blend throw in the onions, green chillies, garlic cloves, coriander leaves, red chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, salt and the drained chickpeas. Blend well, till everything gets mixed.
3. Transfer this in a bowl and add the flour, lemon juice. Mix well with hand and make small balls or patties.
4. Heat oil for deep frying and drop these patties in this and fry till both the sides turn golden brown in colour. Drain on kitchen towel.
5. Serve falafel hot along with tahini sauce.

Tahini Sauce:

Ingredients:.

1. Sesame Seeds- 100 gms
2. Olive Oil- 2 tbsp
3. Salt- as required

Method:

1. Dry roast the sesame seeds till they splutter.
2. When it cools down grind this along with olive oil, and salt. Grind for 2 min. Check for consistency. this should be thick. Add more oil till it reaches the desired consistency and serve.

Leftover Chapati and Vegetable Cutlets

As the Ramadan fasting is going on, there will be many dishes which will be left over and so one among these are the chapatis which we almost always end up wasting. Last couple of days we have been wasting the leftover chapatis, but I felt bad doing that. So I decided to do something and googled many sites and hit upon this recipe, which can be made easily within minutes.

Many recipes can be made with leftover chapatis, but I liked this as I didn’t have much time left before the Iftar time( breaking the fast). Believe me I made this dish within half an hour including the pics.

This is a very nutritious preparation with all the veggies stuffed in the cutlets.

Instead of egg, we can roll them in semolina or else dip them in egg and roll them in breadcrumbs or corn flakes. As I didn’t have any of these I simply dipped them in eggs and shallow fried them. This turned out to be a yummy iftar dish which I am sure I will repeat for sure. You can freeze the uncooked cutlets and can be made any other day.

Adapted From Foodsand flavorsbyshilpi

Ingredients:

1. Left Over Chapatis- 5 nos
2. Onions- 2 nos
3. Cabbage- ½ Cup
4. Carrots- 2 nos
5. Green Chillies- 2 nos
6. potatoes- 2 nos
7. Red Chilli powder- 2 tsp
8. Semolina- 2 tbsp
9. Salt- as required
10. Egg- 1 no
11. Lemon Juice- 1 no
12. Oil- for shallow frying

Method:

1. Blend the left over chapatis in a hand blender coarsely.
2. Chop the vegetables (cabbage, carrot, onions and green chillies) in the blender and keep this aside. Boil, peel and mash the potatoes.
3. Mix the powdered chapatis, vegetables, mashed potatoes, red chilli powder, semolina, lemon juice and required amount of salt well.
4. Divide this into round balls and spread it on your palm in the shape of tikkis. Meanwhile beat the egg along with salt in a bowl.
5. Heat oil for shallow frying. Dip these tikkis in the egg mixture and fry this slowly in a pan. Serve hot along with tomato ketchup and enjoy.