Easy (and delicious) Baked Falafel

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 I really enjoy falafel. The two best falafels I ever had were in Israel and the Jewish quarter in Paris. I have never tried to make Falafel at home because deep frying things is messy and not really my thing. But baking things, I love baking things. This recipe is the bomb dot com (Amy if you are reading this, that was for you).

This recipe is so good. I mean SO good! Camera man approved, and we all know how critical he is. I literally just ate a plate of falafel. Next time I will either put it in a pita with all fun veggies, or make it with a great side salad: cucumber and tomatoes diced very small with EVOO and lemon juice. Something like this.

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Ingredients: 

• 1 Cup Raw garbanzo beans (aka chick peas) these beans will be soaked in water for at LEAST an hour- over night is great. DO NOT USE CANNED BEANS- it will NOT work for this recipe. 
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander (if you do not have coriander do not worry- just skip it)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1/2 small onion or 1/4 of a medium diced
• 2-3 tbs EVOO

Directions:

• preheat oven to 375 (I like to put the pan in the oven so it is hot when you put the falafel on it)
• soak beans for at least an hour -or overnight in water
• drain beans and rinse
• dice onions and garlic
• put everything in food processor: beans, oil, onions and garlic, dry spices cilantro and parsley
• mix for about 1-2 minutes or until it is well mixed
• Take the pan out let it cool off just a little. Add a generous amount of EVOO to the pan. Make little balls with the falafel mixture. Mixture will be softer than you expect it to be. Do not worry if it is a little runny.
• Bake the balls for 15 minutes - turn them over with spatula and bake for another 10-12 minutes. You want a little browning on top. 

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TAHINI DRESSING:

This dressing is very versatile and it can be used as a salad dressing or you can dump it  right into a pita wrap filled with falafel and veggies. Or you can dunk your falafel right into the dressing like I did!

I might need to perfect this dressing a bit but I think this works:

• juice from 1 large lemon
• 2 tbs of tahini
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cumin
• a little water to get it mixing and some EVOO (pour maybe 2 TBS of EVOO and as much water as you think to make it the consistency you want. Maybe 1/4 cup ?)
• sometimes garlic powder is good!
• BLEND TOGETHER :)

I rarely ever measure the dressing and I kind of just go for it! Play around with this dressing recipe or look up another one that you like. Let me know how it goes! How did you eat your falafel? 

XO

Dairy free tomato soup! YUMMY!

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Yesterday I made a tomato soup. I read different recipes and came up with my own. The final product was delicious. A definite thumbs up!

Ingredients:

10 vine ripe tomatoes cut in quarters

5-7 garlic cloves

EVOO

1-1.5 tsp cumin

1tsp coriander

salt

pepper

basil

oregano

1 Cup chicken or vegetable stalk

cayenne pepper (optional for a little kick)

goat cheese (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450

Dice tomatoes into quarters and put them in a baking dish. Cover the tomatoes with EVOO and add plenty of salt, pepper, oregano, and basil. I would say add enough salt not TOO much, but do not be afraid to add the pepper, oregano, and basil.

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In the dish place 5-7 garlic cloves. They will get nice and soft as they cook in the oven and will add great flavor to your soup.

Place the tomatoes and garlic in the oven for 35 minutes. As they cook you will notice juices emerging from the tomatoes and a wonderful smell will fill in the air! Mix the tomatoes twice. Once after 15 minutes and again after 25 minutes.

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After the tomatoes are cooked, carefully take the dish out of the oven as the tomatoes will now be sitting in a lot of tomatoes juices.

Heat a large pot (one that you would make a soup in) and add EVOO or vegetable oil, crushed garlic, cumin, coriander, and a little cayenne pepper if you want a kick.  I would add about 1/2 tsp-1tsp of each, less for the cayenne. Feel free to add more of the seasonings and make sure there is enough oil so that the seasonings do not get stuck to the bottom of the pot. Do not let the garlic burn. Put the fire on medium to low heat. You want it to sizzle for about 3-5 minutes. Keep mixing.

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Add the tomatoes and all of their juices to the pot of seasonings and mix for a minute.

Add 1 cup of chicken or vegetable stock. Mix everything and simmer on low for about 3 minutes.

Take the tomato mixture off the heat and let it sit and cool down. After about 10 minutes  blend everything. You can puree if you have an immersion blender. Or you can pour it in your blender like I did! Works great.

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I made the soup with a grill cheese sandwich on the side. YUM. For my camera man I added a tsp of crumbled goat cheese, in his bowl, to give it a little more creaminess. Camera man said he LIKED the tomato soup!!!! This could be one of the very few dishes he has given positive feed back on. WOW.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Mashed Cauliflower

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Easy to make. Tastes Delicious. What more could you want?

My friend Liz sent me an awesome cauliflower recipe from Linda Wanger's blog. I read through the ingredient list and realized I had everything but my Almond milk had gone bad... gross! So I nixed the almond milk and changed up the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower

water - I did not measure but I would say it was about 1 cup  (while you are blending the cauliflower if it still feels too thick add more water)

2 oz of goat cheese (Linda's recipe asked for 4 oz but I did not have 4 oz)

pepper and garlic powder to taste

Directions:

I followed Linda's suggestion and cooked my cauliflower her way and it worked out great:

"I’m all about speed and ease so this is my shortcut to steaming veggies. Fill a pot or saucepan with water about 1 inch deep. Add 1/2tsp sea salt and bring to a boil. Add chopped vegetables and cook until soft, about 3-6 mins depending on the vegetable. Drain the excess water and you’re done!"

After the Cauliflower was steamed I let it sit in a strainer for about 4 minutes just to cool off a bit. I then placed the cooked cauliflower in a blender, added some water and blended away. I added the goat cheese, pepper and garlic powder and blended some more. The goat cheese melted nicely because the cauliflower was still a little hot!

The end result was yummy, but I do have to say the cauliflower has a strong taste. The taste was not a  cauliflower taste, it is hard to explain. More like a garlic taste that you can't get our of your mouth. I am not sure if this taste was so strong because I did not put much dairy? Next time I will try it with the almond milk to see if it dulls the strength of the cauliflower.

*If I were to make this again I would add something to make it a bit more creamy, whether it be almond milk or a cheese wedge!

How do you make mashed cauliflower?