My Favorite Meal

Falafels have become one of my favorite meals to make at home.  They are healthy, tasty and just so good! I decided I wanted to try something a little extra I'll show you at the end of the post.  Today was a good day minus all the tragedy over in Joplin. It's so crazy to think about! We drive through there quite a bit when we go to Branson, so to see what you see on TV just doesn't seem real.  May God's presence be seen through this calamity.  We truly are blessed to have a home where we can make food, stay warm/cool and dry.  I write this laying on my bed just listening to the thunder roll and the rain drops fall. So relaxing.

So here is the deal with the felafels, let's get started! Super easy! You will need:
Pita Bread
1 can Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
3 tsp Fresh Parsley
1 tsp Lemon Juice
3 cloves Garlic
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Coriander
1 tspBaking Powder
1 tsp Flour
2 tsp Olive Oil

Sauce:
1 small container Greek Yogurt (Plain)
2 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
10 Peppercorns


Put the can of chickpeas in a food processor (Drain them first) get them as mashed up as possible. Put them in a mixing bowl and add the remaining ingredients.  Form them into little patties. You want them to be firm, but not dry, so make sure you have that consistency. It makes 8 patties all together.

Michelle is a hater on frying things, so we bake everything... lame but healthy. (I've been begging for a fry daddy for 3 years...) These are just fine baked.  Heat your oven to 375 and place these patties on a greased baking sheet and bake them for about 20-25 minutes, flipping half way through.

Have some toppings as well. Tomatoes, Spinach, Cucumbers, Hummus, Red Onion, whatever sounds good on it.

The sauce is simple but you will need a mortar and pestle for the best tasting sauce.  This was my own recipe, so change it if you must.  Take the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and peppercorns and put them in a heated skillet on the stove.  Keep them moving around, you want them to warm up so you can smell the fragrance. DO NOT OVERCOOK them.  A few of the seeds will start jumping and popping, that's about the time I removed them from the skillet and put them in the mortar. (this was a gift from the Dominican Republic SDA Union Office, otherwise we probably wouldn't have one) Anyways, grind these seeds up and put about half of the mixture in with the yogurt and mix well. That's it! Easy!

Now for that something different.  As a kid I hated cauliflower, I loved broccoli, but thought that cauliflower was just a gross white piece of broccoli, so I've always avoided it.  However recently, I've been trying different things with cauliflower. Well we were at Aldi yesterday and I saw some and decided I would make some roasted cauliflower. 


Here's what I did.  I cut the cauliflower up into bite size pieces. Put it in a large mixing bowl and coated them with olive oil.  I sprinkled the rest of the seed mixture onto the cauliflower and added a little salt and turmeric (just a sprinkle). Stir it up so you have an even coat on all of it.  Place it on a baking sheet and put it in the over with the falafels.  They should get done about the same time.  You want a little brown on the cauliflower, but most importantly you want it tender.

Now comes the best part, assembling your falafel sandwich! Have fun and enjoy!