Falafel Goodness with Tahini Sauce for dipping!

First things first...I hope everyone is doing well!! I know that you are all scattered across the country, and some of you are starting to get back to some semblance of 'normal.' Here in our Eastern Central area of PA we are still on a stay at home order, which means good things for you!! Like an Easy Easy Easy Falafel Recipe :)
Chris and I (and now Emilia too) have always loved exploring all different kinds of food. Middle Eastern Foods is at the top of our favorites list, and I'm going to give a little shout out to Daddy's Place and Alladin. They are hands down our two favorite local go to's for incredible, clean, made from scratch family owned Lebanese Restaurants. I'm not going to lie, we miss our Saturday morning Easton Farmer's Market browsing where we stock up on all of our local goodies, often while snacking some falafel from Alladin's tent and catching up with Sam. She's always told me falafel was easy to make and to try it!! Well quarantine finally pushed my hand. I have no idea why I was afraid to try making falafel, but there you have it, it took years and a statewide shut down and here we are...home made falafel. Anyone who knows me will be shocked and stunned to know that I didn't follow a recipe (sarcasm), but browsed a few and went with ingredients we had and that I preferred to use. Not only was it super easy to make, it was delish. Lets get started!

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​Here's What We Used:
A food Processor 
*  2 cans of Organic Chick Peas (strained and rinsed)
* 1 bunch of organic parsley (about 2 loose cups)
* 1 bunch of organic cilantro (about 2 loose cups)
* 3-4 garlic cloves
*4 tbsp chickpea flour (garbanzo bean flour)
* 2 tsp salt 
* 2 tsp cumin
* 2 tsp onion powder
* 2 tsp black pepper
* 2 tsp baking soda
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For Tahini sauce:
1/8 cup lemon juice (fresh or bottle)
1/4 cup tahini
1/8 cup cold water
salt to taste

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- Pre-Heat oven to 425F
- While oven heats rinse and strain your two cans of chick peas.
- Add all of your falafel ingredients to the food processor: chickpeas, chickpea flour, parsley, cilantro, garlic, salt, cumin, onion powder, black pepper, baking soda.  Pulse to get started then turn on food processor to blend well.
- Grease 1-2 cookie sheets, or line with parchment. 
- Make your falafel whatever size you'd like, we made small/medium sized ones.  I used a 2 tablespoon melon baller/cookie scoop to scoop batter. Form your falafel into patties, and line up on cookie sheet about 1" apart
- Bake falafel for 16-20 min (check and add a little time if you go with larger patties) Falafel is done when it is getting Golden on the outside and cracking a little across the outside. Makes about 20 small/medium size falafel.
While Falafel is cooking whip up some tahini sauce!
- in a bowl add lemon juice and then tahini. 
- blend with whisk until juice and tahini are incorporated. It's okay if the tahini is still a bit chunky and pasty the water will blend it well and thin it!
- add small amounts of cold water and continue whisking and adding until well blended and creamy.  You can add more water if a thinner tahini sauce is desired.

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Have these as a snack, a side, a meal, in a wrap, you name it!!  They are clean, healthy and packed with good protein and fiber. Another wonderful thing about these falafel, aside from being tasty and moist, is that you can add whatever you want to them.  It's a simple clean recipe, feel free to season them with additional seasonings, add some additional ingredients, and come up with your own falafel based creation! We'll definitely be experimenting with this in the future!
​Leave us comments and let us know how yours came out! Hope you enjoy another M & Em Kitchen Creation!!

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