Falafel Night!

I have been feeling pretty down in the dumps this week so I decided to cheer myself up by cooking dinner for my family. (Nothing is more depressing than eating leftovers right? ;)) I found a fun recipe for Tzatziki sauce that I've been wanting to try out so I decided to make a whole Middle Eastern meal. (Kind of like when you find a cute necklace and have to build an outfit around it). So I looked up falafel recipes online and went shopping! I got everything I needed for the tzatziki and falafel as well as some ingredients for matzah ball soup and couscous (I just made some from a box) It took me a while to make everything since I'd never made Israeli/Greek food before but it made the house smell SO good. Izzy especially liked the smell and sat by me while I cooked

Here is the recipe I used for falafel.

1 15 oz can chick peas, drained

1 medium onion, finely chopped (I used a Mayan sweet onion)
2 T fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 t coriander

3/4 t cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 T flour
Oil for frying

Basically I just threw everything except the flour in the food processer and blended it til it was like a thick paste. (Smelled and tasted delicious already) Then you add the flour and mix it for just a few seconds. After that you roll it into little balls. The recipe said golf ball sized but I think that is too big. You want then to fit nicely in your pita so I made them smaller. Flatten them slightly and fry them in oil. I didn't want the extra fat so I just put a little olive oil in a pan and browned them that way. It takes a lot longer but still tastes delicious. Next time I am going to try baking them in the oven. Once they are fried they are ready to eat. I served mine in whole wheat pita with alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, pickles, olives, hummus, cilantro and tzatziki.

This is the recipe I used for tzatziki. It came from ourbestbites.com

1 1/2 c Greek Yogurt (I used fat free, generic brand yogurt)

1/2 medium sized cucumber

3 green onions

1 clove of garlic, minced

1-2 t lemon juice (I used about 2)

1 tsp dill weed

Salt to taste

First you PEEL the cucumber and remove seeds. I put peel in caps because sadly, I forgot this step. Luckily it only calls for 1/2 of the cucumber so I salvaged the sauce by peeling and using the second half after I realized my mistake. Taking out the seeds is simple. Just cut the cucumber in half vertically and use a spoon to scrape them out. I used one of those grapefruit spoons that is pokey on the end (I'm sure there is a technical term for this) and it worked really well. After you peel it you finely slice it into about 1 -1 1/2 inch pieces. Then you mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl and you're done. I also added a little pepper to mine.

The last thing I made was matzah ball soup. I basically just made the recipe on the back of the matzah flour mix. It was really simple and took just a few minutes. Though you do have to chill the dough in the fridge for 15-20 minutes before you cook it. Instead of cooking mine in water first I just stuck them straight into some boiling chicken broth, added some rosemary, salt and pepper and it made a delicious soup. I let it cook for about 30 minutes. The only way I know how to tell if the matzah balls are done is by cutting one open so I did that once or twice before it was all the way cooked.

What a fun, healthy meal. The only fat in the whole thing was in the pitas and couscous and still that was hardly any. It was fun to take a walk down memory lane of our time spent in Israel. Mom especially liked it :)