Healthy Baked Falafel with Tzatziki and Hummus- Recipe

Middle Eastern food must be one of my favorite cuisines as it is very close to my family's Kurdish cooking. I can eat it all the time, and never get tired of it. It is very versatile with simple recipes with multilayered flavors to more complex dishes that can take days to cook. I will share a few of my favorite recipes of famous dishes such as falafel, tzatziki and hummus.

The falafel recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbook by Salah Jamal 'Arabian Flavours'. It is such a lovely book with an innate charm and great stories and anecdotes from his life and the Arabic culture. It does lack photos if dishes but it is so easy to just google it and find photos of how the end result might look like. If not for the recipes, the read it to get an insight of his childhood and travel memories in the Arab world.

Recipes:

Baked Falafel (with my own twist)

1 can of chickpeas

1 can of broad beans

2 onions

1/2 cup of chopped parsley

2 tsp salt

2 tbsp self-raising flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp paprika, black pepper, cinnamon

1 tsp cumin, coriander, Kuba spice mix

Method:

1- Mix the beans in a food processor until grainy mixture and put it in a bowl. 

2- Mix the onions and parsley in the food processor as well and add it to the bean mixture. Sprinkle over the spices, flour, baking soda and mix well. Let the mixture rest for 1 hour in the fridge.

3- Form the mixture to patties and put them on a baking tray with grease proof paper.

4- Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes on 220 degrees o until golden brown and crispy.

Tzatziki

3-4 tbsp greek yogurt

5 cm cucumber, grated

1/3 onion, grated

pinch of dried dill, parsley, mint and garlic powder to taste

salt and pepper

Method: Mix everything in a bowl and add more seasoning if needed. 

Hummus

1 can of chickpeas

2-3 tbsp of greek yogurt

2-3 tbsp tahini (sesame paste)

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove of garlic

Method: Mix the beans in a food processor until it looks like a smooth paste. Add rest of the ingredients and mix some more. If needed add salt and pepper.

Tangy Salad

3 tomatoes, diced

1 yellow paprika, diced

1/2 cup of chopped parsley

1/3 cup chopped fresh mint 

10 cm cucumber

green olives, chopped

1 tbsp sumac

1 tsp pomegranate molasses

Method: Chop the washed vegetables and mix in a bowl. Add the sumac and pomegranate molasses which add a lovely, zesty and tangy flavor.

  

 Serve the falafel with the tzatziki, hummus, salad and flat arabic bread. Bellow, you see everything being presented in a big silver plate, together with lentil soup and dried dates and figs, as a great Middle Eastern menu. Works perfectly  as a menu during the Ramadan for Iftar, to break the fast with. 

Enjoy!