Falafel

I don't know what made me decide to try to make falafel but I'm glad I did. I really like falafel and this turned out well.

I know falafel isn't really a Greek food but I always had it at this Greek place in San Diego. So, there's my segue to make a plug for Mamma Mia! (it's set in Greece) Go see this movie! I know a lot of people who have loved the musical. I haven't seen the musical but the movie was great. I saw the movie last night and I've had the music stuck in my head all day and I want to go see it again! You will laugh so much and have so much fun. The music is great, the plot is fun, the cast is excellent.

Okay, back to food. For the falafel I used this recipe, to which I made a few changes. I doubled most of the ingredients but just used one onion. I microwaved the beans for a few minutes and they were then quite easy to fork mash. I didn't have fresh parsley so I used a couple of Tablespoons of dried. I didn't have coriander either. I used baking soda instead of baking powder. Instead of putting all the bread crumbs into the mixture, I mixed in half and set the other half aside. I formed the balls, flattened them into patties, then dipped them into the bread crumbs. This worked really well. I don't think the mixture would have been moist enough if I had mixed in the entire amount of breadcrumbs. Also, dipping the patties in breadcrumbs gave them a great crust when I fried them in a little bit of olive oil. I put the patties in warmed pita bread, topped them with tomatoes, and a dcucumber yogurt sauce:

8 oz Greek (Mamma Mia! is set on a Greek island!) style yogurt (plain)

1/2 cucumber, chopped

1 t dill

1 t salt

Process all ingredients in a food processor.