When I first heard about falafels, I assumed they were a deep fried treat based upon their texture. Then I started buying pre-made one’s when I visited my parents in Kansas City because they made the perfect protein addition to my salads and required no cooking!!
Luckily, once back home I had time to explore making them on my own and I discovered an easy falafel recipe that you’ll want to add to your weekly repertoire as well. It’s one of the ways, I’m continuing to help my meat loving husband find a little more joy in plant based eating.
In FULL transparency, after creating the mixture, I was not impressed by the smell and fairly certain this was going to be a recipe failure…but seconds after removing them from the oven I was trying not to eat the entire pan!!
Basically one of the times where I am not allowed to eat the raw version, unlike cookie dough which begs to be eaten all the time.
Easy Falafel Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups dry chickpeas
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 2 tbsp almond flour use quinoa flour if you have it!
- 3 tbsp chopped garlic I buy the jar of chopped garlic
- 1 Tbsp cumin
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp Mrs Dash Salt lower sodium
- 2 Tbsp Vega Antioxidant oil blend
Instructions
- Place beans in a large bowl and cover with water. Leave overnight to soak and the beans will double in size {you want them to stay submerged in the water}
- Remove from water and rinse beans again
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
- Place all ingredients in food processor
- Pulse mixture to blend, but do NOT create a paste. It should still be coarse.
- Pour in to bowl and begin creating small balls that are approximately 2 TBSP {this part requires some patience as they do not want to stick together very well}
- Bake on parchment paper or spray a baking sheet
- Bake 20-30 minutes depending upon the size of balls you make
I served it with some homemade tahini {sesame seeds ground into a nut butter} and veggies…because I think we all know that power bowls are basically the only thing I eat.
Seriously I DIE, they’re awesome!! I tend to like eating things before I bake them, this was an exception as they are only good after baking, ha!
Health Benefits
As always, I like to do a little sports nutrition talk with any recipe!
Omega’s
For those who have asked me about the oil blend, I like it for a few reasons: good for high heat, a balanced blend of Omega 3-6-9, provides a great flavor to dishes.
What’s it contain: hemp oil, flax seed oil, pumpkin seed oil, green tea seed oil and like 5 others! It really is a blend all pure and cold pressed, no chemicals
Chickpeas
A great blend of carbs and protein for runners, to prevent blood sugar spikes, which means better fat burning. The additional fiber also helps to keep you feeling full longer…even more so if you serve it up with a big bowl of veggies like I do!!
Have you tried falafels?
Any recipes that you’ve tried recreating on your own lately that went well?
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19 Running Rules: Wearing the Race Shirt? Bib Placement? Corrals?
