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.
