Lunch was going to be so easy to talk about … until I got carried away! I had both tahini and chickpeas on hand, and since I already made hummus yesterday, falafel was clearly in order for today!
I loosely used this recipe but of course changed almost everything. I soaked 1/4 cup dry chickpeas in two inches of water overnight. This morning, I drained the chickpeas and then immersion-blended them with the rest of the recipe ingredients. I was making a much smaller batch than what was in the recipe, so I eyeballed/tasted the measurements for everything else. I think I ended up using an overly high ratio of wet things to the chickpeas, so my batter was too wet. I soaked up the extra moisture with about 1/4 cup coarse blue cornmeal:
The resulting mix was still a bit wet, but significantly stickier.
Instead of frying, I decided to bake. I heated the oven to 350 and lined a cookie sheet with parchment. I divided the batter into six balls.
After about 20 minutes in the oven, the balls had flattened somewhat as I had expected they would due to the wet batter.
I let them cool enough to handle and then reformed them into balls, flipped them, and popped them in the oven for another 15 minutes.
And then, for extra measure, I put the falafel under the broiler (minus the parchment paper) for 5 minutes to get them sufficiently crisped.
For the tahini dressing, I mixed the rest of the baby Artisana jar of tahini (about 2 tsp) with 2 tbsp plain yogurt and sprinkles of coriander, cumin, cayenne, and garlic salt & pepper.
I had three of the falafel balls for lunch on a big bed of arugula and topped it with half of the tahini (I’m saving the other half for the other three balls).
They were perfectly crunchy (thanks to the cornmeal) and crisp on the outside and moist on the inside:
It was no Mamoun’s, of course, but it was close!
On the side, I had a mini arugula salad with a couple tbsp tuna humbangu (I was craving that as well) with a dollop of roasted red pepper hummus for color:
Together:
I needed chocolate after this meal, so I went for the other half of my UliMana raw hemp brownie from last night:
I don’t even think brownie is the right word for this. It’s like a solid, perfect, grainy block of dark dark chocolate fudge. Ahhhh. I need to do more research into raw “cooking” and find out how to make this for myself!
I had a few more snacks throughout the afternoon. The rest of my Newman’s spelt pretzels (about 3/4 serving) with 2 more tbsp hummus:
Yerba mate and a plummy gummy:
A raw macaroon:
A hard-boiled egg with pepper:
And a mug of soymilky Numi Emperor’s Puerh tea. Following the instructions on the bag, I brought “regal waters” to a boil and steeped for 3-5 minutes “to capture the full taste of this majestic tea.” Numi describes this black tea as bold and malty, and I certainly needed both of those this evening! I’m still dragging from my restless doggy night last night, and I’m heading out to a birthday party in a few — my goal is to last longer than an hour there. Hopefully, the tea helps. So far, it just tastes like regular black tea. Word is that the party will have food, too, so that’s why I kept my evening eating to a minimum.
What do you want to learn to make for yourself?
Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition 
I’d love to learn how to make sushi for myself.
Your eats looks awesome, blossom! 😉
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I wish I wasn’t scared to make my own Greek yogurt: thick and creamy.
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I love falafel! Thanks for sharing tips on making baked (instead of fried) falafel — I’ve gotta try it myself!
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vegan mac and cheese! and falafel, actually!
http://eatingchalk.wordpress.com
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FALAFELS! YAY! 😀 nicely done!
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Sarah- those falafels look really good! You do such an awesome job cooking great things from scratch! 🙂
I would like to learn to make homemade sushi rolls.
HAve a great eve!
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Too funny that you mentioned Mamoun’s! That’s exactly what I thought of when I saw your falafel. I went there for the first time my freshman year of college. Oh gosh that makes me feel old…
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Yum…..I can’t get over how good that balls & tahini lunch must have been! haha!….and the chocolate fudge too!! Ahhh….drooling over your food, again.
And I had yerba mate this morning too, with soy milk and stevia…how do you have yours??
Hope there’s lots of good food at the party!! Have fun Sarah! 🙂
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Lovely falafel!!! I’ve wanted them since I made my own last week! The one thing I want to learn how to do that I just HAVENT is to make sushi… it scares me!
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stopppp stoppp you’re putting us all to shame with your creative cooking and of course, always perfect results!!! Too bad i don’t like felafel, otherwise i’m sure i’d love yours. TOTALLY looks like the broiling did the trick of sealing in the moisture. ymmmmm….yummmm
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“I used this recipe and then changed everything”…hehe…that is TOTALLY me, too 😉
I’ve NEVER tried falafel, can you believe it?! Something I’d like to learn to make for myself…beans! I just buy the canned ones but I know that I can do it at home!
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love your falafel… it looks really crunchy and delicious!!! I want to try that blue cornmeal (where did u get it?)….so pretty! 🙂
I want to learn to make bread, especially french baguette… but I guess in my dream only! 🙂
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Oooh, that looks like a perfect meal to me. Falafel, hummus, tuna, YUM! I’ve been avoiding falafel for so long because it’s fried, it’s never even occured to me to bake it. I’ve got to bring it back into my rotation!
Something I want to learn to make – bread. I’ve successfully made a loaf of bread once, but the whole process is still a mystery to me. I’d love to be able to bake my own bread all the time!
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I have always wanted to make bread but for some reason the yeast scares me! I’m a baby what can I say?
Your meal looks amazing Sarah!
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Wow! Your falafel balls look SOO AMAZING!! I will sooooon make them myself at home… soon soon soon!
I’m excited to move back home and live with my Mom again who will hopefully help me out with lots of new cooking experiments!! Falafel rounds are definitely HIGH on the list!!
HAPPY SATURDAY SARAH!!!!!!!!
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Way to rock the falafel! Awesome job!
Also, I love the way you make hardboiled eggs look really exotic through your skilfull photography skills. I need to work out how to do that…
I wish I could make poached eggs! I always fail!
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Falafal…way cool! I love the blue cornmeal addition too. What do I want to make for myself? I’m not sure. I’d love to make homemade bread. It’d also be neat to make croissants.
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is it sad that i’m super jealous of your blue cornmeal? i can’t find it anywhere.
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ah I have been wanting to try falafels (i’ve had a recipe bookmarked forever!) and you make them look so easy to make.
I’d like to learn how to make my own tiramisu. The recipe on the ladyfingers packages always sounds so complicated.
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