I love travelling: it always makes me meet different cultures, visit places caracterized from different colours and perfumes. Travelling, open my mind and makes me embrace new life styles and point of views. Every time I feel a very important personal enrichment. In addition I can eat different food. I also live the possibility to join ingredients and cooking styles to create a nice dialog between cultures…..it’s wonderful! In this recipe I make one version of falafel, that is a typical plate of Middle East Countries: these legumes fried balls are delicious with a fresh yogurt sauce.

Ingredients (for about 12 falafel):

  • chickpeas 8,8 oz
  • ½ onion
  • 1 bouquet of parsley
  • 1 organic lemon (peel only)
  • 1 coffee spoon of curcuma
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • Vegetable oil for frying

for the sauce:

  • Natural yogurt 4,4 oz
  • 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  • 1 coffee spoon of mustard
  • 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • pepper
  • chives

Steps:

  1. Pour the chickpeas into a large bowl and cover them by about 3 inches of cold water. Let them soak overnight.
  2. Prepare the sauce making an emulsion of: natural yogurt, lemon juice, mustard, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and chives.
  3. Drain chickpeas and put them into a food processor with chopped onion, parsley, lemon (peel only), curcuma and salt and pulse all together.
  4. Scrape the sides of the food processor periodically and push the mixture down the sides.
    We need to obtain a mixture to hold together, and a more paste-like consistency will help with that.
  5. Now you can start creating balls using about 2 tablespoons of mixture. Leave them on a pan.
    If the balls won’t hold together, place the mixture back in the processor again and continue processing to make it more paste-like.
  6. Heat the oil over medium heat.
    If the oil is at the right temperature, it will take 2-3 minutes per falafel: they will be golden brown outside and fully cooked in the centre.
  7. Drain on a paper towel and serve with the yogurt sauce and some fresh vegetables.