Experimenting with Falafels

I saw this recipe in Parents Magazine and thought it sounded tasty, so I decided to try it yesterday while my husband had his one day off and could help with the baby. She was fussing and wanting to be with me instead of him, but I stayed strong and finished making dinner anyway. Aside from the fiasco of the pita pockets that I'd bought just two days ago being totally covered in mold (forcing my husband to run out and buy more), this did turn out to be pretty tasty. Of course, he found it "missing something", which was probably meat. Why can't men eat a meal that doesn't include meat once in awhile?

Ingredients:

1 15-oz can garbanzo beans
1/4 cup shredded carrots (just grate half a big carrot from your fridge, don't go buying a bag of pre-shredded carrots)
3 Tbs Sesame Tahini (either buy a can or make it yourself, which I'll tell you how to do)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt (you might try vanilla, since the plain wasn't very tasty)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tomato
a few lettuce leaves
mini or regular sized whole wheat pita pockets
2 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp. chopped garlic
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil (in sprayer)

To make sesame tahini: grind 2 Tbsp roasted sesame seeds in a chopper/food processor for about 30 seconds. Add 1/2 tsp. sesame or olive oil and 1/4 tsp. salt, then grind together another 20 seconds. Add UP TO 1/4 cup of warm water, bit by bit, grinding after each time you add a little, until the mixture becomes pasty. The recipe I found said to add the whole 1/4 cup and mine became watery, so I'm thinking you should add a little less. Tahini is a sesame seed paste.

Preheat oven to 425F. Rinse and drain garbanzos and mash together with carrots, flour, 1 Tbsp water, 2 Tbsp Tahini, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper. Use a potato masher and then finish mashing/mixing with a fork. It's fine if it's a little chunky. Grease a cookie sheet with olive oil spray and shape mixture into small patties, about the size of a half dollar. Place on cookie sheet and spray over all with a little more olive oil. Bake 5 minutes, then pull them out and turn each patty over. Bake another 6 minutes.

While falafels are baking, mix yogurt, remaining tahini, and lemon juice in a small bowl. Add a little water if the mix seems stiff.


Stuff 2 falafel pieces, tomato slices, and a lettuce leaf in each pita pocket half with a spoonful of the yogurt sauce. Dip sandwiches in extra yogurt sauce served on the side. Serve also with slivers of pepper and cucumber and dip in the sauce.