Who NEEDS CHICKPEAS? CaULIFLOWER and NUT FalAFel
Falafel is a middle eastern food made from deep fried chickpeas. The best falafel I ever had was many years ago in Israel.
I made my first attempt at Paleo falafel while my husband was on a two week trip to Israel, visiting family. While he ate his fair share of Israeli falafel, he also spent a fair share of time in bomb shelters as rockets zoomed overhead.
The whole world watched Israel as it was under attack, but I refused to follow the news because I knew my anxiety would get the best of me. To calm myself down, I cooked.
Making falafel made me feel close to my husband as he was half a world away and when he came home safe the night before my birthday (flights were grounded hours after he flew out) I fed him a few Paleo falafel to help ease his transition home.
After spending weeks eating the real thing, he was impressed how authentic the Paleo version tasted.
But while he was still away I served these bad boys to Rachel from Grok Grub, a local Paleo recipe blogger I’ve befriended. It’s so nice to have someone to geek out with over all things Paleo.
She also liked my Paleo falafel.
While, traditionally falafel is fried in inflammatory vegetable oil (corn, soy, peanut or canola) my falafel are baked instead. This makes much less of a mess and simplifies the cooking process. They still turned out crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.
They’re delicious dipped in tahini sauce and served with my Russian babaganoush (eggplant dip).
Ingredients
1 cup of cauliflower rice (run cauliflower florets through the food processor til finely chopped)
1/2 cup of raw cashew
1/2 cup of pine nuts
1/4 cup of sesame seeds
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons of tapioca flour or arrowroot flour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of each: salt, smoked paprika, dried parsley, cumin, cayenne
optional: 3 Tablespoons of crushed Kale Chips
optional: 2 Tablespoons of Pork Rind Breadcrumbs
How to
Process all the nuts and seeds together with the olive oil in a food processor or a high powered blender.
Add eggs, spices, garlic, tapioca/arrowroot and cauliflower rice to the nut mixture and mix together until dough forms. Add in kale chips and pork rind dust if using.
Roll falafel into small tablespoon sized balls.
Place on a baking parchment paper lined cookie sheet in a preheated oven at 350. Bake for 35 minutes.
Serve with tahini sauce (recipe and instructions below)
Tahini dip ingredients
1/2 cup of tahini paste (You can buy tahini here)
1 lemon juiced
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 cup of water
1 teaspoon of salt
Paprika for garnishing
HOW TO MAKE Tahini dip
Mix tahini paste, water, lemon juice, oil and salt in a food processor or by hand in a bowl. Serve in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika.
- 1 cup of cauliflower rice (run cauliflower florets through the food processor til finely chopped)
- ½ cup of raw cashew
- ½ cup of pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour or arrowroot flour
- ¼ cup of sesame seeds
- ½ cup of sunflower seeds
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of each: salt, smoked paprika, dried parsley, cumin, cayenne
- optional: 3 Tablespoons of crushed kale chips
- optional: 2 Tablespoons of pork rind dust
- Process all the nuts and seeds together with the olive oil in a food processor or a high powered blender.
- Add eggs, spices, garlic, tapioca/arrowroot and cauliflower rice to the nut mixture and mix together until dough forms. Add in kale chips and pork rind dust if using.
- Roll falafel into small tablespoon sized balls.
- Place on a baking parchment paper lined cookie sheet in a preheated oven set at 350. Baked for 35 minutes.
- Serve with tahini sauce (mix ½ cup of tahini paste with same amount of water, juice of one lemon, salt, 1 tablespoon of oil and one teaspoon of paprika)
