recipe: Falafel wraps with a cucumber & dill dressing

Do you know what falafel is?  

Yeah, I had no idea what falafel was either.  

I decided to educate myself in falafel-ism and just go for it.  I found this recipe on foodcomablog.com, which I really have loved lately, and got excited to try it out.

I am pretty sure falafel is a power food.  

Yes, I know it is a fried food, but I don't care I am calling it a power food.  I killed it on my bike ride the next morning.  Killed it.  And I am giving all the credit to these deep-fried falafel balls.

To make things easier on me; I tend to prep for dinner during the day before I go to work.  I made the falafel early so it would have time to set up in the fridge before I fried it; I made the cucumber dressing so all the flavors would combine; and I made the homemade flour tortilla dough as well.  And yes, I found the tortilla recipe on foodcomablog.com as well.

Falafel

2 cans chick peas

1 large red onion

4 Tb chopped parsley

4 Tb chopped cilantro

2 ts salt

4 cloves garlic

2 ts baking powder

1/3 cup flour

Combine everything in a food processor until roughly combined.  In a medium bowl, combine flour and baking powder.  Add chick pea mixture to flour.  Combine until you can form it into balls.  You might need to add extra flour if it is hard to form.  Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and place formed balls on sheet.  Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in fridge for a good 2-3 hours or overnight.

Heat 2 inches (or so) of canola oil in a heavy cast iron skillet (I find these work best for good deep frying) on high heat.  Roll the balls in flour and place them in the oil.  Fry for 2-3 minutes, or until a golden dark brown all around.  Allow to cool over paper towels.

Cucumber Dill Dressing

1 cup greek plain yogurt

3/4 chopped cucmber

1 1/2 Tb fresh dill

Combine and let flavors sit together in the fridge.

Homemade Flour Tortillas

3 cups flour

1 ts salt

1/2 ts baking powder

1/3 cup olive oil

1 cup warm water

In a bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder.  With your hands, mix in the olive oil into the flour mixture until well incorporated and crumbly.  Pour in water and combine completely.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.  Divide the dough into 8-10 pieces.  When ready to cook, roll out until thin and cook in a non-stick pan for 2 minutes per side.

For the remainder dough, I rolled them into balls and wrapped them separately in plastic wrap.  I placed them all in a plastic bag and put them in the fridge.  Now whenever we want fresh tortillas, we just grab a dough ball, roll it out and cook it.  Fresh, yummy tortillas in minutes!

Now to assemble the wraps!

Tortilla.  

Freshly chopped romaine (out of all my excitement I forgot the romaine in our wraps, I am still mad about it, they would have made the wraps even yummier).  

Falafel balls.  

Cucumber Dill Dressing.

Yummy!!

Oh and by the way, falafel is a middle eastern food.  It originated in Egypt.
Consider yourself fooducated.