Middle Eastern Cooking - Healthy Baked Falafel - Gluten Free

Falafels are usually made into a ball, fried or shaped like a patty. Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) are combined with spices to create this delightful Middle Eastern dish. Some cultures, like the Egyptians, use only the fava beans instead of the chickpeas. And other people, like the Lebanese combine both the fava beans and chickpeas.

Falafel is usually placed in the pocket of half a pita bread accompanied with fresh vegetables and then topped with tahini (ground sesame seed) yogurt, or hot sauce. Others serve it plain or with sauces for dipping.

The chickpea dates back to over 20,000 years, therefore being one of the 1st plants eaten and common to the daily human diet. Both Israelis and Palestinians lay claim to being country to invent the falafel, as if they don’t have anything more important to argue over!

To make the falafel from fresh chickpeas, first you have to soak them in water. Now, we can just purchase a can of chickpeas, put them in the blender and we have ground chickpeas!

If you ever were in Israel you probably have experienced this street food, so much so that it is often times called. Hot Dog of the Middle East, but there is no comparison when it comes to taste and texture. And when not fried, the falafel is healthy because of its high protein content and the vegetables that accompany the patties.

With our health consciousness world we thought you would enjoy this baked edition.

Preheat your oven to 350°F

1 medium potato
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
1. small onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons tahini (sesame see butter)
2 tablespoons soy sauce – wheat free or Bragg liquid Aminos
1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1/2 teaspoons coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne

Cook potato in covered pot until soft. If you have waterless cookware or an pot with a tight lid that would be best. Put very little water in the pot.

Drain the water and add the chickpeas. Mash with a potato masher.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Make small patties and put on lightly greased oiled baking pan.

Bake 15 mintues.
Recipe from Food for Life by Neal Barnard, M.D.

If you are not gluten sensitive then serve in warm pita bread and fill with your favorite veggies: lettuce, tomato, cucumber, green onion, green pepper. Top with tahini sauce, salsa or yogurt.
Enjoy.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 6:06 pm and is filed under middle-eastern. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.