Baked Falafel with Hummus in a Pita

I fell in love with falafel when I was in Israel. I’m pretty sure that not a day went by when I did not eat falafel at least once while I was on that trip.

It may have been a bit excessive.

But, as you may know, falafel is pretty high in calories as it is super fried. No good for the waistline. But if you bake them…

Ingredients

• 4 large pitas

For the Baked Falafel

• 1 cup of canned chickpeas, drained
• 1 cup of parsley, chopped
• 1 cup of cilantro, chopped
• 2 teaspoons of coriander
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon of all spice
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of cardamon
• 1-2 teaspoons of lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

For the Hummus

• 2 cups of canned chickpeas, drained
• 1/4 cup of garlic powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/3 cup of tahini
• juice from 2 lemons
• 2 tablespoons of water

Directions

For the Baked Felafel

Preheat the oven to 400°F / 200°C and generously spray a muffin or popover tin with nonstick cooking spray. Combine all of the ingredients except for the olive oil in a food processor (I have a small food processor so I processed ingredient by ingredient, and then poured each processed ingredient into a large mixing bowl and manually stirred the ingredients together), making sure that the ingredients become well-combined but not completely smooth and paste-like. Add the olive oil and manually mix.

Using your hands, form small balls out of the greenish concoction and place them in the muffin tin (one per muffin cup). Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops of the falafel become lightly browned and stiff to the touch.

For the Hummus

While the falafel is baking in the oven, make the hummus by placing all of the ingredients in the food processor and processing until smooth. Pretty easy, huh?

For Serving

Open the pitas and four baked falafels in each. Add a very large dollop of hummus (or, you know, several dollops) and serve!