Mild falafels with onion

A recipe for making mild falafels with onion by diluting strong falafel mix with bean flour.

Introduction

Falafels can be part of a tasty and nutritious meal. Knowing what does and does not go into making a falafel should tell you that they are healthy and a great alternative to meat protein. But don’t take my word for it, see what Kathleen Zelman says about falafel nutrition.

Many like making falafels from raw materials by soaking and grinding the dry chickpeas and other pulses. I am often too busy to do all that, so I like to start with the pre-made dry falafel mix. The dry mix stores very well and can be quickly prepared in a few minutes, preferably with a little standing time while the wet mix absorbs moisture and becomes more workable.

While making falafels at home from the dry mix is good, the dried falafel mix makes a wonderful bushwalking/backpacking food as the dry mix packs down efficiently, is loaded with good nutrients and is very easy to prepare. The falafels can be cooked quickly and can be served with a variety of other complementary flavours.

Whether for meals at home or while out backpacking, I find that all commercial falafel’s herb and spice flavours are just a bit too strong. Also, I must admit that when I try to make my own dry falafel mix from the base ingredients I just can’t quite get that typical ‘good-falafel-flavour’. Consequently, I cheat a little by making my own dried mix by blending the commercial falafel mix with plain pulse flour (~50:50 ratio). I prefer to use flour from Faber beans (Fava, or skinless Broad beans). Usually, such bean flour can be purchased at bulk food stores that also supply bulk falafel mix.

I have a stone mill for making real wholemeal flour for sourdough bread making according to my recipe. Consequently, I use the mill to make my Faba bean flour and other milled grains. I experimented with several alternative pulses to make the diluting flour, but the dry and split Faber beans (whitish without skins) mill nicely, even if noisily, but more easily than other dried pulses. Fortunately, they are the cheapest dried pulses that one can buy and are nutritionally as good as Chickpeas.

Making mild onion falafels

As with many of my recipe/food posts, the introduction is quite long. As compensation, the nitty-gritty part is quite brief.

Blending the dry ingredients to make mild Falafel mix. Add a bulk packet of commercial Falafel mix to a large bowl and then add an equal quantity of Faber bean flour. After mixing these together it can be stored in an airtight storage bottle such as a 2-litre plastic vinegar or milk bottle [Add link to welded filling funnel].

Making up the falafel mixture. To a mixing bowl add

• 1 cup of the blended mild Falafel mix,
• 1 egg (powdered egg if backpacking),
• 1 finely chopped red onion (dry onion flakes if backpacking),
• Other additives such as a handful of finely chopped apple (dried apple cubes if backpacking) and herbs such as parsley to taste,
• Add and mix in about half a cup of water to make a soft mix

The water will gradually soak into the mixture and become firmer, so add the water progressively to give a stable soft bread dough texture. “If the mixture is too wet, adding more of the mild falafel mix can fix the problem.” These ingredients make about 12 mild falafels as shown in the photos.

Forming the falafels. There are many ways to form falafels, but this is the one that I now use because it is easy, quick, has minimal waste and allows the Falafel size and count to be easily predetermined. Their flatish shape is very suited to rapid and even cooking using a trace of oil in a non-stick pan (Further squashing and flattening can also be done during cooking as described later).

I start by cutting the one-cup mild falafel mixture into two equal portions and place them sequentially onto a thin cutting board that is lightly dusted with homemade wholemeal flour (it gives a nice nutty finish to the cooked falafel when cooked). Each portion is rolled into a sausage shape while it becomes coated with the coarse particles of wholemeal flour.

Each sausage shape is made long enough to enable it to be easily cut into six pieces that will each form a falafel. Each sliced portion is further rolled in the flour to form squat cylindrical Falafels with flour coating the freshly cut ends.

The raw falafels can be stored in a bag to keep them moist and they are ready for quick (5-10 minutes, depending upon the stove power) cooking when the dinner bell is about to be rung. Alternatively, they can be frozen in this form and will be ready for cooking sometime in the future.

Falafel cooking. Baking, deep frying and shallow frying are all valid cooking methods. For health reasons, I choose to shallow fry in a lightly oiled pan. Apart from the health factor, it is also very suitable for lightweight backpacking cooking. Depending upon the heat source these little mild falafels can easily be cooked by shallow frying in 5-10 minutes.

I add the squat cylindrical Falafels to the hot pan and let one side cook until brown. Then I quickly turn them all to cook on the other side. After turning, I squash them down with a spatula to flatten them and increase their diameter so that the cooking is quick and even. They develop improved structural integrity during the cooking of the first side, so they don’t crack and crumble into pieces as they would when squashed before initial cooking.

Tim