Salad and Falafel

My friends Beth and Christina came over for dinner after work last month to restart our supper club. I wanted to make something quick, easy and healthy. I stumbled upon this recipe from Cooking Light magazine. I had a lot of the ingredients on hand already so it was the perfect match!

Ingredients:

Sauce:

1  cup  hot water
1/4  cup  tahini
3  tablespoons  fresh lemon juice
1/8  teaspoon  salt
2  garlic cloves, minced

Patties:

1  cup  chopped red onion
1/2  cup  chopped fresh parsley
2  tablespoons  fresh lemon juice
1  teaspoon  ground cumin
1  teaspoon  salt
2  (15 1/2-ounce) cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
4  garlic cloves, minced
1/2  cup  dry breadcrumbs, divided
4  teaspoons  olive oil, divided

Salad:

mixed greens
grape tomatoes
chopped cucumbers
chopped red onions
kalamata olives

Directions:

First, mix the ingredients for the sauce in a food processor or blender. Put in a bowl and set aside.

Then, mix first 7 ingredients for the patties in a food processor until well incorporated. This took a while because you have to scrape the sides and because my food-processor is quite small, I had to do it in batches and mix it all up in between the pulses.

Put into a large bowl.

Form bean mixture into small patties, coat in breadcrumbs and then saute them in olive oil over medium-high for about 4 minutes on each side.

After cooking, place on a dish lined with paper towels to drain any excess oil.

Mix up salad and then plate it!

Drizzle tahini sauce over the falafel and enjoy with pita slices!

Tags: cooking light magazine, falafel, salad