Falafel Goes Green

Falafel with a difference.

Food lovers often love to experiment with their cooking ingredients and methods. Being a Vegetarian and fond of Lebanese food finds me cooking Lebanese meals at intervals. However, the Falafel we get in my city in the few Lebanese restaurants leaves us quite unsatisfied so I prefer making mine with fresh black eyed beans when available. The texture of ground fresh black eyed beans is very smooth and the falafel bites turn out quite soft.

The Pandemic has somehow forced us to not venture out much so I decided to use the dry stored black eyed beans this time but made a variation to give it a softer texture using other ingredients at home. Here’s the recipe:

1. Soak a cup of the Black eyed beans over night or for 6 hours.
2. Soak 1/4th cup Yellow gram lentils( Channa dal) for 2 hours.
3. Drain the water from both.
4. Mix the beans and lentils and add some garlic, ginger, green chillies, mint leaves, a pinch asafoetida and put in the grinder.
5. Add to it some salt, cumin.
6. Finally add a 1/4th cup of shelled green peas and a handful of fresh spinach leaves.
7. Grind all ingredients together.

8. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture shaping portions of it between two spoons into hot oil .

9. Fry till it appears done but do not over cook. Let the bites remain to a soft , succulent consistency.

10. Enjoy the delicious falafel bites plain with a sauce of your choice (Yoghurt dip/ green chutney/coconut chutney/hummus) as a short eat or fold them into your sandwich along with pickled vegetables and/or green salads.