As a fairly new dad, I’m always looking for new ways of sneaking a few extra veggies into our little lady’s lunch and what better way to do that, than by disguising them as delicious, crispy falafels?!
Shout out to Donna Hay for her beautiful falafel recipe in ‘Weeklight’, her lovely new book. As well as the usual falafel ingredients, they’re also loaded up with peas, kale and broccoli too, all the good stuff! I love garlic and coriander, so I tweaked the recipe a touch. It’s so simple, just blitz everything and shape into falafels, before baking instead of frying so they’re extra light and healthy. They’re the perfect little lunch-box snack or easy dinner. You can always double or triple the recipe and freeze the rest, I’ve found it so handy to have a bunch of them sat in the freezer good to go at a moment’s notice. About 7 minutes in a really hot oven and they’re ready.
To keep things good on the health front, I paired them up with a simple chopped salad from Sami Tamimi & Tara Wigley’s excellent new book ‘Falastin’. It’s a delicious Palestinian salad, that’s zingy and light, just make sure you have super fresh vegetables and they’ll do all the work for you.
Serves 4
Ingredients Falafels 400g can of chickpeas 1 onion, finely chopped 120g frozen peas, thawed 100g broccoli, finely chopped 70g, chopped kale leaves 2 cloves of garlic, crushed 25g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped 25g fresh coriander, finely chopped 10g mint leaves, finely chopped 1 1/2 tsps ground cumin 1 tsp ground coriander Extra-virgin olive oil for brushing Chopped Salad 1 cucumber, quartered lengthways, seeds removed and chopped into 1/2cm dice. 400g tomatoes, seeds removed and chopped into 1/2cm dice 1 red or yellow pepper, cut into 1/2cm dice 2 green chillies, seeds removed, finely chopped 5 spring onions, finely sliced 2 tbsps olive oil 25g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped 15g mint leaves, finely sliced 1 garlic clove, crushed Zest and juice of one lemon
Method
- For the salad, place all ingredients in a large bowl and season with 1 1/4 tsps finely crushed sea salt and a good grind of pepper. Mix well then arrange on plates.
- Preheat oven to 220’C. Blitz all falafel ingredients except oil in processor. Season carefully with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Take 2 tbsps of the mixture and roll into a falafel shape, then repeat with remaining mixture. Place onto lightly greased tray, lightly brush with oil and bake for 15 minutes. Brush again, then bake for 15 more minutes until golden and crisp. Serve alongside salad.
