Hey there!
As you might know or not know I am a true lover of the North African cuisine. My favourite restaurant indeed is a Moroccan one. So for you Swiss people out there, check out Maison Blunt in Zurich if you don’t know it yet, the food is just divine and the interior absolutely beautiful.
Anyways back to my love for couscous, tagines, hummus and so on and so forth. I love the spices, the ingredients, the way of preparing the food; it’s just the best.
On of my favourite ingredients the north African cuisine tends to reach out for a lot are chickpeas and one of the best things to make from a can of chickpeas are if you ask me some homemade falafel.
When I came up with the recipe I am going to share with you today I once again had this really big craving for falafel. Yet I didn’t feel like something greasy and fried hence I decided to make some baked falafel, which actually always turn out amazing. I have made baked falafel before yet for the ones I’ll share with you today I mixed it up a little.
Instead of going with the classic ingredients I decided to add some leftover quinoa as well as left over baked sweet potato. Since I mixed up the base ingredients I decided to go for the classics when it comes to spices. I added lots of chopped parsley, harissa, cumin and smoked paprika and once I again decided to step out of the ordinary and add a squeeze of lime juice.
Falafel are just a perfect thing to have on hand so you could even double or triple this recipe and then freeze a bunch and keep it for later. They’re great on salads, alongside baked vegetables, on a sandwich or even as a small afternoon snack, so versatile!
Those particular ones were just truly delicious. If I do say so myself I’d say they can totally keep up with any ordinary falafel you’d get at your local Turkish place. They’re different yet amazing and absolutely worth a try.
So there you have it the super simple recipe, which btw is perfect if you’ve got some left over quinoa and/or sweet potato.
- 100g cooked chickpeas
- 130g cooked sweet potato (about half of a medium sized sweet potato)
- 20g cooked quinoa
- a handful of parsley
- a tiny little harissa
- 1tsp cumin
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ½ lime (juice)
- salt
- 1tbs whole wheat flour
- Put your chickpeas, the sweet potato as well as the quinoa into a bowl
- Finely chop up your parsley
- Add your chopped parsley as well as all of your spices into the same bowl as your other ingredients
- Also squeeze in the juice of half a lime
- Mash your ingredients with a for until your ingredients turn into a chunky paste
- Now add approximately 1 tbs of flour and mix it in with your falafel mixture, the mixture you’ll end up with will be rather wet, though trust me this is totally fine it will all work out in the end
- Now shape your falafel mixture into 2cm balls and put them on a baking sheet, you’ll end up with around 8 to 9 falafel. Bake them for 25-30 minutes at 180°C, they’re ready when they’re slightly crunchy on the outside, the inside however should still be on the softer side
Voila you’re already finished. Wasn’t this so easy?
The end result is absolutely delightful; they are obviously quite different from ordinary falafel yet they’re absolutely worth a try. I especially loved the slight sweetness from the sweet potatoes, which contrasted perfectly with the spicy harissa. I had mine with some dried tomato hummus and a big salad, yet as mentioned before they go with so many other things, so have them with whatever floats your boat and I can guarantee you to end up with an amazingly tasty meal.
I’m pretty sure this recipe will be becoming my go-to falafel recipe; they’re just so good.
Bisous
Fanny, the foodie
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