Falafel At Home

Up until tonight, falafel was something I only considered eating out and never at home.  I assumed making it from scratch would require a slew of ingredients, so it never crossed my mind to make it myself.  It seemed much more natural to buy a falafel sandwich from a food truck or shovel in a falafel platter while crammed inside a small kabob house (aren’t they always small?). But when I began perusing recipes, I was intrigued to find there weren’t too many ingredients and the cooking process was actually rather simple.

So last night I set out to make them, closely following this recipe*, since it had so many rave reviews.  We were blown away by the results, they were absolutely delicious! This recipe completely redefined falafel for me- it is most certainly an at home dish.

I severed the falafel in pitas, and garnished them with lettuce, tomatoes, and yogurt sauce.  You could also serve them with tahini, I’m just quite partial to this sauce.

Yogurt Sauce (dressing for 7 patties)

1 cup greek yogurt

juice of 1/3 lemon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp grated garlic

1/4 cup crumbled feta

Whisk all ingredients together, cover, and let sit in fridge for at least one hour.  Spoon over falafel when ready to serve.

*The recipe instructs you to form small balls of falafel.  I formed patties and pan fried them, as opposed to submerging them completely in oil.  If make patties, they should 1/2 inch thick.  Coat a heavy frying pan liberally with vegetable oil, and set to medium high heat.  Allow pan to heat for 5 minutes, and then place patties gently in the pan.  Cooking for 5 minutes on each side, until they’re a dark golden brown.