Falafel Sandwich

Serves: 4

Falafel is a very popular Middle Eastern food. It is a deep fried patty prepared with chickpeas and served with pita bread. In this recipe, I prepared half deep fried and half shallow fried. This is my family favourite meal and we enjoy with yougurt dill sauce or hummus. Sometimes, we just eat patties as a snack :))

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Ingredients:

For the Falafel:

  • 1 cup dry garbanzo beans
  • 1½ teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1-2 teaspoon red chili powder
  • 3 garlic cloves crushed
  • ¼ cup cilantro chopped
  • ¼ cup parsley chopped
  • 1½ tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 medium white or yellow onion chopped
  • 2 tablespoon all purpose flour
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • oil for frying
  • Salt to taste

For assembling:

  • 6 Pita pocket bread
  • 1 cucumber cut into slices
  • 2-3 tomatoes cut into slices
  • Shredded lettuce

Yogurt dill sauce:

  • 1 cup greek yogurt
  • ⅓ cup grated cucumber
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • ½ teaspoon chopped dill leaves
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder

Method:

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To make Falafel:

  1. Soak garbanzo beans in enough water for overnight. Next day, wash and drain out the excess water.
  2. Add garbanzo beans, onion, cilantro, parsely garlic, red chili powder, lemon juice, all purpose flour and baking soda in a food processor until it is well combined and make a fine paste.
  3. Pour this mixture in a bowl, cover tightly and keep it in a refrigerator for 45 minutes.
  4. You can shallow fry these patties on a skillet or deep fry them in a pan.
  5. Deep fry method: Heat oil in a pan. Make round balls out of the paste and flatten them between your palms. Deep fry until they are brown and cooked fully. Drain them on a paper towel.
  6. Shallow fry method: Heat tava or skillet. Make round shaped balls of the paste and flatten them between your palms. Place on hot skillet. Drizzle little oil around and on patties. Cook these patties completely by flipping to other side.

To make yogurt dill sauce:

  1. Grate cucumber and squeeze out the water from cucumber.
  2. Add cucumber, yogurt, dill leaves, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix everything.
  3. Add lemon juice and stir well. Keep it in a refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

To assemble:

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  1. Cut pita bread into half. Warm them in a microwave for 15 seconds. Place lettuce at the bottom inside one half of pita. Place 2 falafel, cucumber slices, tomato slices. Top with yogurt dill sauce.
  2. Serve immediately and enjoy!