Lebanese Falafel

Name: Lebanese Falafel
Yield: 20-serving
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 1 Cup Chickpeas Dry (soaked for 24 hours); 1 Cup Parsley (chopped fine); 0.5 Cup Cilantro; 2 Onions (medium) roughly chopped; 10 Cloves Garlic chopped; 3 Green chillies roughly chopped; 1.5 Tablespoons Coriander Powder; 1.5 Tablespoons Cumin Powder; 1.5 Teaspoons Baking Soda; To Taste Salt; Oil for frying

Sunbula Abdul Jaleel @cook_7801456

Bangalore

I've had Falafels in plenty as I grew up in Kuwait. It was the first time I had something lebanese that was vegetarian. I liked the nutty crunch on the outside and fluffy green inside.
I recall my mother saying we cant make falafels back home in Kerala as it needs something very exotic called "bagdoonis" (parsley in Arabic). About 20 years later, today, I live in Bangalore and a few days ago I was stuck with 2 big bags of "bagdoonis" in my refrigerator. It didnt take me much time to figure out what to do with them. So, here we go!

Sunbula Abdul Jaleel @cook_7801456

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Ingredients

20-serving

1 CupChickpeas Dry (soaked for 24 hours)
1 CupParsley (chopped fine)
0.5 CupCilantro
2Onions (medium) roughly chopped
10 ClovesGarlic chopped
3Green chillies roughly chopped
1.5 TablespoonsCoriander Powder
1.5 TablespoonsCumin Powder
1.5 TeaspoonsBaking Soda
To TasteSalt
Oil for frying

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Steps

1

Soak the chickpeas overnight or upto 24 hours in the refrigerator for better results. Drain as much water as you can. Too much moisture will prevent the mix from holding shape when made balls
2

Make the mix: Use the large jar of the blender to pulse together the soaked chickpeas, onions, garlic, green chillies. After 3-4 pulses, coriander and parsley leaves, baking soda, coriander and cumin powder. Note: the mix can be made in batches as well to avoid over crowding the blender jar.
3

Pulse a few more times. You do not want a fine paste. Just an uneven crumbly mixture that can be made into balls when a handful of mix is lightly pressed together. I say uneven because the bigger bits of chickpeas adds an extra crunch.
4

Add salt to taste and rest this mix for an atleast hour or even overnight
5

Make small lemon-sized balls of the mix. At this stage, these can be deep frozen and fried as per requirement. Or, deep fried immediately. Let one side brown before turning. I had to be really delicate with frying these falafels as they could break if I turn them over too quickly.
6

Fried Falafels can be made into a pita bread sandwich or salad with some tahini sauce, tomatoes, cucumber, etc. Enjoy!