broccoli falafel

broccoli falafel recipe, how to make broccoli falafel

falafel is a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas or fava beans.



Falafel is a traditional Middle Eastern food, commonly served in a pita, which acts as a pocket, or wrapped in a flatbread. Falafel balls are topped with salads, pickled vegetables and drizzled with hot sauce. Falafel balls also eaten alone as a snack. These fritters are now found around the world as a replacement for meat.

When made with chickpeas and broccoli, falafel is high in protein, complex carbohydrates, and fiber. Key nutrients are calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper, manganese, vitamin C, thiamine, pantothenic acid, vitamin B and folate. Phytochemical's include beta-carotene. Chickpeas are low in fat and contain no cholesterol, but a considerable amount of fat is absorbed during the frying process.

These falafel balls are ideal for lunch/snack boxes for children and adults along with salad, cheese sticks/fruits and yogurt and it makes complete meal.

I always make bunch of them and store them in a few freezer bags once balls are completely cool down. This way you can have them whenever you want, like takeout how many you want from freezer and microwave them for 2 minutes @360 degrees and pack them in kids lunch box or serve them as you wish.

Broccoli Falafel Recipe:

Waiting time : 6 to 8 hours
Prep time : 10mins
Cooking time : 20mins
Yields : approx 50 balls

Ingredients:

Chickpeas - 250g (washed, soaked overnight)
Broccoli - 1 large
Onion - 1 medium (finely chopped)
Garlic - 1pod(chopped)
Flour - 2tbsp
Green cardamom powder - 1/2tsp
Pepper powder - 1/4tsp
Baking soda - 1/4tsp (dissolved in 1/2tsp of water)
Salt to taste
Oil for shallow frying

Method:

1.) Drain the chickpeas and place them on a cotton rag/towel and pat them for further drying as we need absolute no water or dampness on chickpeas and leave it aside.

2.) Nicely separate/cut the broccoli florets from stem (make sure you have absolute no thick stem attached to florets).

3.) Blanching broccoli florets, take a sauce pan and boil water with salt. Add florets to boiling water and boil it for 2 minutes then immediately take out the florets and run the cold tap water on it or alternatively add florets to a bowl of cold water with ice cubes in it. Then drain the florets and place them on a cotton rag/towel and pat them for further drying as we need absolute no water or dampness on florets and leave it aside.

4.) Now add all the ingredients to a blender(chickpeas+florets+salt+onion pieces+garlic+cardamom powder) and pulse it to a course paste then take out the mixture into a large bowl. Adjust the salt now, add pepper powder and add baking soda which is dissolved in water, give it a very good mix.

5.) Take a kadai and heat oil for frying, meanwhile prepare falafel mixture balls to fry like take a scoop of mixture into your hand and try to make it like a ball. Make few mixture balls ready for frying.
6.) Oil should be heated on a medium heat and make sure its not too hot as the balls may turn into dark without cooking inside.

7.) Now drop 5 to 6 balls into oil and fry them on both sides until golden/light brown in colour and remove from oil and place them on a paper towels to absorb excess oil.

8.) Repeat the step 7 and fry all the balls.
9.) Now falafel is ready and serve them with ketchup or in a pita bread along with salad.

Tips:

• Adding baking soda, makes the balls soft and tasty.
• Without baking soda, they tastes hard and dry.
• it's hard to decide what they taste like...not much like broccoli though;
• the mix of spices, garlic and other things gives them that authentic and exotic flavor.
• the making is quite simple, the frying is fast; 
• the smaller the skillet, the less oil you'll use; the balls don't have to be swimming  in oil but they should be in it at least half way;
• How many balls to fry at a time? Well, it depends on the size of frying pan you use and i suggest you to not overload the pan as the oil cools down and helps balls to absorb more oil.
• They always tastes better by serving hot/warm.

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