On Monday night, Scott and I had falafel in pitas for dinner. I had never had falafel before and had certainly never cooked them, but they just sounded tasty. I tend to have palate a little more willing to experiment than Scott, however he seemed to enjoy them as well.
I was doing some meal planning on Saturday before heading out to the grocery store. This usually involves me sitting in front of a stack of cookbooks looking through for things we haven't tried. There are only so many ways one can cook a chicken before the meat gets banished from the freezer for a few months, so I try to keep things new. When I saw the falafel recipe, I thought back to the tasty bean cake sandwich I made a few weeks ago and figured that it couldn't be all that exotic as the principle is the same.
A falafel is basically ground chickpeas seasoned with some garlic, onion, cumin, and etcetera, formed into a patty, and fried in oil. I was surprised at how tasty they were. We smeared some Target-brand hummus on pita, popped the falafel in, and ate them while they were hot. Yum! All the texture of meatballs without the fat...and meat...
While my local Target does carry a very nice deli selection and offers tasty hummus through their Archer Farms brand, they didn't carry the stinkin' $0.79 bag of dried chickpeas. I had to go to a "real" supermarket for those, but at least I have some left for next time.
Definately try them if you haven't before, but one tip: when a recipe tells you to soak the peas for 12 hours, it means it.
Posted by Tiffany at January 17, 2007 10:31 AM | TrackBack