What's to Eat?? Falafels!

Lentil Falafels!!!

There are many variations of making these protein-filled, little small bundles of joy called falafels-using chickpea variations or lentils.  Personally, falafels are one of my most FAVORITE meals-whether it's in a bowl, pita,  salad, or simply by themselves with a dip.  This Mediterranean dish is so really healthy, filled with flavor, and surprisingly for it's size, super filling, but in a good way, not food-coma status.  

What you will need:: (To make approximately 30-40 small falafels)

• 1/2 cup of each lentils(green split peas and yellow split chickpeas)
• 1/2-1 inch of ginger
• 1-2 chillies, depending on how spicy you want to make it

Soak the lentils in water for two hours.   Then drain the water out and pull out your food processor.

Add the chillies and ginger into the processor and start it until they are both fully chopped.  Then add your lentils and process it until it looks like the picture below. 

 You have just made your falafels!!! THAT SIMPLE.

Now to fry them.  Add a decent amount of oil into your frying pan and turn the heat to medium.  While waiting, you can start on making your falafel balls.  Add salt to taste now.  It is VERY IMPORTANT that you add salt now and only now.  You will notice once you add salt to your falafel mixture, it will make the mixture a lot more watery.  Now just simply take a small amount, or however big you want your falafel balls to be, and create a ball-like shape to it.  I like making smaller ones because I crumble them up in my sandwiches anyways and it makes for more falafels. This process will make your hands veryyyy messy, as you can see below.

You can take a small little bit from your falafel and test the oil to see if its warm and ready to fry.  Once it is, add a handful of your falafels into the pan carefully and turn them and wait until they turn a nice brown color.  YOUR FALAFELS ARE NOW READY! WHOOO HOO! aum-nom-nom-nom :)

 As for what to put in your falafels? I like to add a variety of veggies, hot sauces, feta, harissa(which should already be in your fridge spicy lovers! get my recipe here!), and this yogurt mixture made of yogurt, italian dressing, ranch dressing, hot sauce and salt.

I added about 4 spoonfuls of yogurt to a bowl, with 1-1/2 spoons of italian and ranch dressing.  Then salt to taste and a few pinches of hot sauce to taste.  Everything is really to taste, so just figure out how you would want your nice, cool, yogurt mixture to be.

Don't forget to chop up your veggies and lettuce! (I used romaine lettuce, celery, cabbage, bell peppers, onions, carrots, broccoli, and cucumbers.)

ENJOY!!!!

Check back tomorrow for Friday Favorites and this weekend for an OOTD! 

ps, don't forget to =)