Falafel with Joghurt Tahini Sauce

For many vegans, falafel are probably the "go to" food if you want a snack on the go. At least you get them relatively often in Fast Food Shops here in Germany and they are often the only vegan option, besides french fries.

But every now and then it's nice to make this delicacy from the Middle East yourself. :)

Duration: 1 hour (+ 12 hours soak)

Difficulty: easy

Makes: About 40 falafel & sauce with it

Ingredients:

Falafel

500g dried chickpeas

100g spring onions

125g fresh parsley

10g garlic

15g fresh coriander (or more parsley if you don't like coriander)

25g salt

10g cumin

3g ground coriander seeds

7g baking powder

Sauce

400g unsweetened plant-based yogurt

25g olive oil

25g lemon juice

10g garlic

150g tahini

Salt & pepper

optionally some parsley

Preparation: I

t is best to start the evening before.

The chickpeas have to soak and will roughly double their weight in the process. If you are spontaneous and want to do the whole thing with canned chickpeas, which I wouldn't necessarily recommend, you have to add some flour / chickpea flour, otherwise the dough will be too mushy.

When the chickpeas are soaked the next day, pour them through a sieve and rinse them briefly with a little water.

Then the chickpeas and the remaining ingredients are put in a food processor and mixed into a fine dough. I like it best with spring onions, but of course you can also use normal onions.

It should still be a tiny bit chunky and not a complete mush. Unless that's how you prefer your falafel.

If the amount is too big for your machine, you can of course divide the whole thing into 2-3 runs and then mix the entire mass again by hand. You probably have to stop the machine every now and then and scrape the sides down a little so that the blades catch everything. Then the falafel mass can be put in the refrigerator for another half an hour so that the starch of the falafel can bind a little more.

While the dough is resting, the sauce can be made. It's super easy too. To do this, all the ingredients are simply weighed together and then mixed with a hand blender. Please note that Tahin varies quite a lot in consistency and taste, so maybe add it bit by bit and try it. The Tahini I used was pretty liquid. Then only add a little bit of salt and pepper to taste and put the sauce in the fridge until it's used.

Towards the end of the time you can let your deep fryer get hot or heat oil in a saucepan. Balls about the size of a walnut are now formed by hand. You can of course also use the dough to make burger patties or use a falafel former.

The shaped falafel can also be frozen on a tray at this point so that they can be used the next time you are hungry for falafel.

Then the falafel are deep-fried until they are golden brown.

Now quickly cut a few vegetables, pickles and herbs of your choice ...

and then top an Arabic flatbread with all the delicious components.

Now you just have to drizzle the sauce over it and enjoy.

Guten Appetit!

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