Finally made good falafel, courtesy of The View from the Great Island. Before I’ve used canned chick peas which just don’t work. They become too soft and mushy! This falafel recipe uses soaked dried beans that are ground with onions, garlic, spices and fresh herbs. Tejas, my husband, said they were the best he’s had, crunchy on the outside, soft and flavorful on the inside! The cilantro makes them green inside.

We had these with homemade pita bread; a sauce made from yogurt, a little sour cream, garlic and salt; and a salad of tomato, cucumber, onion and salt.

1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 jalapeño
1 cup cilantro loosely packed, stems are fine
3 cups soaked chick peas (soak overnight-I sometimes keep soaked chick peas in the freezer since we don’t plan ahead much)
Zest and juice of a lemon or lime (lemons are better, but we only had a lime)
1 tablespoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda or 1 teaspoon eno (fruit salt which is part baking soda and part citric acid)
Oil for deep frying

1. In a food processor, grind the onion, garlic, jalapeño and cilantro. Then add in the soaked chickpeas and process until the chick peas are in little bits but not pasty.
2. Mix in the lemon zest, lemon juice, cumin, coriander, salt and flour.
3. Right before you’re about to fry the falafel, stir in the baking soda or eno and form into little balls. The original recipe said this made 2 dozen small falafel, but I made them pretty big and got 12.
4. Fry until browned on each side. Drain on a paper towel.