Falafel

Its surprisingly easy to make this Middle- Eastern street food at home just remember to soak dried chick peas
overnight as the recipe wont work with canned. Serve as mezze, or pile into warm pitta bread with tahini,
houmous, chopped salad, pickled chillies and a lick of hot sauce. You can vary the recipe by adding chopped
chilli, lemon zest or more herbs to the mixture, or by rolling them in sesame seeds before frying

Preparation time:15 minutes, plus soaking and chilling

Cooking time:20 minutes

Makes: 30 Serves: 6

Ingredients
300g dried chick peas, soaked overnight in cold water
12 onion, finely chopped
small handful parsley stalks, chopped small handful coriander stalks,
chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
pinch cayenne pepper
pinch ground cinnamon
tsp baking powder
1 litre vegetable oil, for frying

TO SERVE

3 tomatoes, diced
cucumber, diced
handful parsley leaves, chopped
handful coriander leaves, chopped
12 lemon, juice
230g pot houmous

Method
1. Drain the chick peas and blitz with the other falafel ingredients (apart from the oil) in a food processor
until you have a coarse paste; season with black pepper and chill for 1-2 hours.
2. Heat a deep-fat fryer to 180 C or fill a large, deep saucepan 1/3 full with vegetable oil and heat to 180 C

using a sugar thermometer. Roll heaped tablespoons of the mixture into balls (you should make about
30, each around the size of a golf ball). Fry in batches for 4-5 minutes, until crisp, golden and cooked
through (cut one in half to check). Drain on kitchen paper.
3. Toss together the tomatoes, cucumber, herbs and lemon juice; season. Serve with the falafel and
houmous, piled into toasted pitta bread with chilli sauce, if liked