Serves: Makes 12 - Time:
There is a school of thought that insists tinned chickpeas don’t make good falafel but honestly, I can’t tell the difference between home- soaked chickpeas or the tinned variety. I add an egg to my mixture to help it bind together which I believe isn’t strictly authentic but if it makes life easier why not? You don’t have to serve the yogurt dip with the falafel –sometimes I stuff them in a pita along with salady bits and douse them in sriracha which hits the spot every time.
Ingredients
- 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained
- 2 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 3 tablespoons roughly chopped coriander
- 1 tablespoon roughly chopped mint leaves
- 1 tablespoon roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- Zest of one lemon
- 1 egg
- ¾ teaspoon Maldon salt
- For the dip
- 200g greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
- Juice of ½ lemon
- Vegetable oil for deep frying
Method
- Put all the ingredients for the falafel in a food processor and blend to a paste. Taste and season with a little more salt and ground black pepper. Roll into 12 balls and place on a baking tray. Chill for one hour.
- For the dip, mix all the ingredients together and taste and season with salt and ground black pepper. Stir in a little cold water if the dip thickens up too much. Chill until ready to eat.
- Heat the oil in a deep fryer (or heat about 3-4 cm oil in a deep frying pan) to 180 °c. Fry the falafel in two batches for about 2-3 minutes until light golden, drain on kitchen paper and serve warm with the dip.
