ELECTRIKLADY COOKS: FALAFEL

100% vegetarian chickpea croquettes! They are delicious and a nice starter. I normally make more quantity than necessary and freeze what I am not going to use, as the croquettes perfectly preserve flavors when frozen. Then it is not necessary to defrost, you can fry them directly in a deep fryer. There is a yogurt sauce that goes ideal with them and I am also going to show you how to prepare it

INGREDIENTS (for the croquettes)

- 200 gr chickpeas (they must be left soak for at least 12 hours)

- Fresh parsley

- Fresh coriander

- 1 onion

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 3 teaspoons of cumin

- 1 sachet of baking powder (I forgot to put it on the photo, but it is necessary! It makes the falafel being fluffy)

- Salt, ground pepper

- Olive oil

INGREDIENTS (for the yogurt sauce)

- Dry mint

- 1 grinded clove of garlic

- Juice obtained from a lemon

- Virgin olive oil

- Salt, ground black pepper (it is not on the photo but it is needed!)

- 1 natural yogurt

STEPS (to prepare the croquettes)

You have to leave the chickpeas soaking in a bowl with water for at least 12 hours

Then drain them as much as possible

I am going to prepare the dough for the croquettes in the Thermomix, putting all the ingredients together at the same time. If you don´t have a Thermomix you can use a mincer. First of all you should mince the chickpeas, and then the rest of the ingredients. Once you have everything minced, mix all till you obtain a thick dough.
In my case, I put the drained chickpeas inside the Thermomix jar

The onion, peeled and cut into pieces

Parsley (I was no able to find fresh parsley at the supermarket, so I am using two big spoons of this concentrated one, if you have fresh parsley, use at least half bunch)

Coriander (I don't like this herb but it gives falafel a special flavour. In my case I don't use much quantity, but add it according to your taste)

Cumin (3 - 4 tea spoons) and salt

2 cloves of garlic

1 sachet of baking powder

Close the Thermomix jar and set the machine Speed 1 during some minutes. The dough must look like this:

You must leave the dough settle for at least 1 hour

Then prepare a pan with abundant olive oil and heat it

Take small portions of the dough and squeeze them as much as possible with your hands (they will expel liquid from the vegetables, remove as much as you can for easier cooking) You can mould falafel as balls or in my case they are like small burgers. It is more comfortable to fry them with this shape, but it is up to you, choose the way you prefer.