Falafel in Pita Recipe

The other day, at the Farmer’s Market, we tried these really awesome falafels. Now, we’ve made falafels at home a bunch of times but these were so delicious, I carefully took mental notes on all the stuff they put in it. It was a stuffed pita bread with cabbage, carrots, sauerkraut, cucumbers, tomatoes, pickles, and tahini. It was so good, I had to make it. Normally, I would make them in pita bread but fold them like a taco, and instead of all of those veggies, I would use lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

This was delicious to say the least.

SERVING: 6-8 falafels

INGREDIENTS:

Falafel Mix (unless you wanna make them from scratch) I used the falafel mix above because it has absolutely nothing bad (except the soy sauce powder, I can do without). I got it at my local super market.

Pita Bread – I used whole wheat ones (the brand wasn’t so great)

Tahini – I used the one above, it didn’t have any bad stuff either.

2 Limes

Cabbage – Shredded (I used radicchio too)

2 or 3 Tomatoes – Diced

Sauerkraut (I didn’t use it)

1 Carrots – Shredded

1 Cucumbers – Diced

Pickles (I didn’t use)

Canola Oil (or your choice of oil for frying)

Salt & Pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS – DRESSING

For the tahini dressing, blend according to directions on the package. It took me a while to blend it cause it was so dense, my blender almost burned! I had to add more and more water, and lime and stir it every few seconds with a spoon to get the top liquid to the bottom of the blender. Once you get the right amounts of water and tahini in the blender, squeeze one or two limes in there. I like it a little lemony, so I usually use two. Once you get it blended, add some salt and pepper if you like and blend some more until well mixed. Taste it. You may want it thicker or more runny. Don’t add too much water though, it may turn too bland. Try adding more lime or little bits of water at a time. If you have leftovers, once in the fridge, it will become more dense, so although it may seem too runny at first, once refrigerated, it becomes more of a thick dressing, like the consistency of yogurt (or something like that). There’s tons of variations for the tahini dressing, so experiment! You can add garlic, olive oil, spices, etc…I stick to the simple and quick: water, lime, S&P.

DIRECTIONS – FALAFELS

Mix the falafel mix according to directions. Get a small spoon and once it’s well mixed, scoop one tablespoon and roll it into balls. I like to make them small so they fit better in the pita. Ok, so I have only fried them but you can broil them. When I fry them I only use about 1/4 of a cup of oil or even less on medium heat. I turn them every minute until they are brown all around. This helps me not consume too much oil. Once out, I blot excess oil (you can use paper towels if you use them). For broiling: Flatten balls into approx. 1/2″ patties and brush both sides with oil. Place them on cookie sheet and broil them 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden. Remove from broiler, blot excess oil.

DIRECTIONS – ASSEMBLING THE FALAFEL

Easy. Just moisten the pita with a little bit of water and warm it up in the oven (don’t use the microwave cause it will make it crunchy/stiff/chewy after they’ve cooled-unless you have a better technique). Open the pita and stuff it with 2 or 3 falafels, add some cabbage, tomatoes, (all veggies) etc, add dressing, and do another layer of all of that — falafel, veggies, dressing. And now you’re ready to take a bite at your falafel sangggwich.

Enjoy! (the picture doesn’t show the stuffed pita cause I did it my “old way” the first time….so you can also have them like this and eat them like a taco, but this way is much messier!).

If you have left over dressing, I read you can use it in fish recipes :) or with your left over falafels! Warm ‘em up in the oven and BAM! you got lunch, or dinner or both for the next day.

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