Veggin' Out

Well it's May 1st (where has the time gone?) and I've got one wedding down, and one to go (for now!). This weekend's day-of coordination turned out well, after a bit of a rocky start, we pulled together a fun and beautiful event! I learned a lot along the way, met some great people and am even more excited for the next one in just 2 short weeks!

For today though, since I've so been neglecting my little blog, I decided to share some of the new, delicious and simple recipes that have had us veggin' out!

That's right, we've gone vegetarian. Okay, not entirely, but I did go all-veg for one full week and the hubby totally dug everything that I made! I decided to start reducing the amount of meat in our diets and pumping up our vegetable intake (even more than we already do) to see if it made a difference on how I felt. It actually does and I feel great!

So, these next couple of posts are dedicated to some of my new favorite vegetarian recipes! Hope you'll try them out and enjoy them as much as we do.

This first recipe in this little veggie series is based off of Jeanie's Falafel, a recipe I found on All Recipes.com.

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper  
• 1 egg
• vegetable oil for frying
• Middle Eastern flat bread or pita
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced
• spinach
• tzatziki Sauce
• tahini Sauce 

 

Directions

1. Use immersion blender or food processor to mash garbanzo beans to a thick paste consistency.
2. Stir in the onion, garlic, parsley, cumin, turmeric, baking powder, bread crumbs, egg, salt and pepper.  Mix to dough-like consistency.
3. Heat oil in deep pot about 3/4"-1" deep. (you can deep fry them if you prefer, but I like to minimize the amount of oil I use and just get a good crust on two sides)
4. Use your hands to form balls about 1"-1 1/2" in diameter and drop into the oil.
5. Cook until golden brown on one side and then flip to brown the other.
6. Remove falafel balls onto a paper towel.
7. Warm the flat bread and lightly coat one side with about 2 tbls tahini sauce. 
8. Add spinach, peppers and falafel balls and top with tzatziki sauce.
9. Grub!

Jeanie's recipe was a great start for ingredients and directions (since I had no idea where to begin), but since The Hubby doesn't love cilantro, I left that out and I added an egg to make the falafel a bit more moist since it has a tendency to be a dry. This is a meal that anyone will enjoy.

Happy Mediterranean Eating!