Falafel / Chickpeas Vadai

Falafel is a middle eastern recipe. It is more or like south indian masala vadai/paruppu vadai. The main difference here is grinding all ingredients together including onions, cilantro, green chilli etc with chickpeas. I usually use parsley for this recipe. But today I am going to use cilantro(coriander leaves) instead of parsley because parsley may not be available at many places.

Falafel

Cuisine: International | Category: Snack/Side-dish | Serves: 2-3

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min

Ingredients

Garbanzo beans/Chickpeas	- 1 cup
Onion	- 1/2 cup (chopped)
Coriander leaves/Cilantro	- 1 cup (chopped)
Green chilli	- 2 (chopped)
Garlic	- 3 cloves
Salt	- as required
Oil	- enough to fry

Instructions

1. Soak garbanzo beans in enough water overnight. Now drain the water completely. Add chickpeas along with chopped onions, coriander leaves, garlic, green chilli and salt to a blender.

2. Grind all together into a coarse paste without adding any water. Make equal size balls from the falafel mixture.

3. Heat oil in a frying pan. Drop the falafel balls into hot oil carefully. Fry till all falafels becomes nice brown color.

Serve falafel as a side dish, appetizer or snack. I usually like it as a evening snack.

Lax Notes

* Add rice flour if the falafel ball doesn't hold together.

* You can add fennel seeds, ginger if you like.

* Falafel is usually served with tahini sauce. It can also taste delicious with coconut chutney.

* If you have parsley, use parsley instead of coriander leaves. It will give a different flavour.