Mar 16, 2010

Pita Falafel Sandwich with Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

I love falafels - probably the only Mediterranean dish that I eat apart from fried Cauliflower!  And Baklava. That's a different story though.

I usually make this at home with a store bought falafel mix. Easiest way to have my craving of falafels satisfied. But, as usual something got into my head and I decided to make it from scratch. Fresh is good, very good but it was too much work and I felt that now that I've conquered my battle with the falafels, I will stick to using store bought ones next time.

I also always have a fascination for roasted red bell pepper hummus and love that flavor over the plain hummus - so as I was already feeling very generous..I decided to also make that. I loved every part of that hummus - there's still some left in my fridge and I find myself eating that with almost everything!

So, enough of my love story with food - let's get started with the recipe.

Soak about 2 cups of garbanzo overnight and pressure cook for a couple of whistles until its soft. I used 3 cups actually and it was a lot - got about 30 falafels. So, if you're cooking for many, use 3 cups.


Chop up some onions, garlic and cilantro. Also keep about 2 tsp of cumin seeds ready.


Move the cooked and completely drained garbanzo to a food processor - make sure there is no water in here. The drier, the better to make balls and fry.


Pulse a few times and grind this to a coarse consistency.


Now add all the chopped up onions, garlic, cilantro and jeera. Add salt to taste. Add 1 tsp of baking powder in here.


Add 1 heaped tsp of coriander powder to the mix.


Add some red chilli flakes to the mix.


Give everything a good whirr - until all combined well. Make sure that no big pieces are left out - scrape down the sides while processing.


There's the mix ready.


Make small balls out of the mix. Flatten them and then fry in hot oil until golden to dark brown. Try one or two first - make sure that they don't dissolve in oil. If it does, then the paste it too thin. Add some flour to the mix, and try again.


 All fried and golden falafels!


Now, make a quick salad with your favortie veggies. I added fresh lettuce, shredded carrots, cucumbers, chopped tomatoes, olives and a little bit of red onions to my salad. Some falafels are traditionally served with round cut veggies like cucumbers and beetroots. You can choose any way you like it. I love my salad this way. If you have left over falafels in the end, you can chop them into small pieces, add to this salad and that is a perfect greek falafel salad by itself.


The next step is to make the hummus. Hummus basically is a paste again of garbanzo beans with some tahini (ground sesame seed paste), a little olive oil and lemon juice.

This roasted red bell pepper hummus is also the same but just with the addition of roasted red bell peppers - but the flavor just increases tri fold! Try it sometime and you'll never go back to plain old hummus!

Chop one red bell pepper into long stings. Roast them on top of a griddle. Sprinkle some olive oil on top to help roast the peppers. Roast till you see some sides getting black and charred.


Move the peppers to a food processor. Add some soaked and cooked garbanzo beans to this. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add salt to taste. Add about 2 tsbp of tahini. I did not have plain tahini but had a store bought hummus tahini mixture - so added a little bit of that. Add 1 tsp of chopped garlic to this. Finally add about 1/4 cup of lemon juice for a kick!

Give it all a good whirrr.


And tada...here's the super tasting red bell pepper hummus.



While I was frying the falafels, I roughly cut a couple of pita breads and fried them in hot oil - and made pita chips! Try some pita chips with this hummus. You will want to kiss the people around you - there is so much love!


To assemble the falafels, I used pocket pita bread. You could also use a flat bread and make it like a taco with the fillings. But, I do like the pocket bread.

Apply some of the hummus on the insides of the pocket pita.


Arrange a couple of falafels or three if you like.


Fill all empty spaces in the pocket with the gorgeous salad. You could also actually add salad at the bottom and then top off with the falafels. Its your sandwich - make it any way you like!


Enjoy your pita falafel sandwiches! Now, if only I could watch some belly dancing for entertainment!


Enjoy! Peace out!

29 comments:

  1. Simply Wow!!! I love your step by step pics:) They really highlight your recipes:)

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  2. woooapppahhh!!! i never thought falafel's could be made @ home so easily... btw i love the plain home-made hummus only so much...should try with red peppers :)

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  3. Girl! where is all this energy coming from??? Keep it coming.. :)

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  4. Fantaastic falafels and hummus. Loved the homemade version

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  5. Hey! Now after all this feast, I too feel there ought to be some belly dancer entertaining the crowd:). Fabulous photo essay of making of a scrumptious lunch!

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  6. Thanks for clicking all pictures as to how to make the falafel. I had a tough time. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Looks great and fantastic. Yummy falafel sandwich.

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  8. Hai!!!!! Loooks sooo tempting with superb clicks, falafels looks sooo perfect. I like this one very much, but now only came to know how to make at our home.sure will try this one dear...Thanks for sharing...Take Care and Keep smiling.

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  9. i will save up for the next 3 years, visit you, live with you for a while, and eat your cooking.

    the end.

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  10. The falafel with pitta bread looks so yummy...this is one of my fav eats...love the detailed recipe...thanks for sharing.

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  11. Awesome falafels. Clicks are very illustrative and appreciate ur patience.

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  12. good one..should try making iy sometime

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  13. Oh wwooooooooow I love this..after coming to MN i did not do it. I am so tempted seeing this. But I just add chopped onion and other things to the falafel.. I will do this way next time. Thats truely wonderful tongue tickling feast.

    Pavithra

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  14. Whoa!! this is one of my favorite kind! love the red pepper in the hummus..

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  15. Same pinch! I made falafel on Monday too... havent gotten around to posting it yet. Yours look lovely! I wish we could swap them on the post :) I want to taste some of yours and I wish I could get a second opinion from you on mine!

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  16. loved ur blog template.. last pic is so tempting..Thanks for sharing this!

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  17. Fabulous..loved the step by step pic description..This would be one of the best pita sandwich ever..

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  18. Looks delicious ..
    Hey Hosting a Give Away if ur Intrested pls STop by

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  19. Lovely... I like the way u have presented evrything... I made falafel too yesterday.. I made pita bread too for 1st time....You r right even I like Falafel and Bakhlava only in ME Cuisine..they r tully heavenly

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  20. Mriga,,thanks for stopping by in my blog and i tried your malai kofta it came our perfect and yummy,me n my hubby enjoyed the recipe with peas pulao. http://samayalcorner.blogspot.com/2010/03/malai-kofta.html

    thanks for sharing dear,,,take care n keep smiling.

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  21. I am sure no one can give a better details to this recipe .Its mouth watering and beautiful clicks

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  22. Wow...drool drool! I've never had falafel...only heard of it and seen pics. You are inspiring me to make it! :)

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  23. Wow Anu! This is simply superb! We get falafels here and I love them. To be honest, I thought it was green peas that was used in this recipe. Only today I came to know that it was not green peas. And one more thing - your cullinary vocabulary is too strong. Gotta learn from you.

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  24. Oh yum! I love it! I haven't made falafel's either but I do like them... I've made hummus plenty of times, but that's something else I just like to buy... Isn't it funny that even though we love to cook, there are some things (even fairly simple things) that we would just prefer to buy already prepared? The sandwich looks perfectly delicious :)

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  25. Love the hummus! Sandwich looks fantastic!

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  26. This gives me a wonderful idea for my lunchbox. Thanks for the step by step pics.

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  27. Hi
    I stumbled on ur blog today only to me impressed with ur culinary skills and healthy recipes!
    I have a request - u seem to be very good in making sandwiches, yet we have very few to select from. Yes, please upload more sandwich recipes.
    As to my real query,you haven't mentioned how much chickpeas to add for the hummus. Please lemme know as I'm intending to make this combo tomorrow for my hubby as a light n healthy supper.I am gonna soak the beans as soon as I get your reply :)

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  28. Thank you everybody for the kind comments.

    @5za - For the hummus, you can add about 1/2 cup of garbanzo beans. This will make enough hummus for 2-3 people for a meal. I will try to add more exact ingredients for recipes in the future!
    Thanks for stopping by. Let me know how the dish turns out.

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