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Welcome back to Video Jug and the food for all series. My name is Pippa, author of the
intolerant gourmet, and in this episode, I am going to show you how to make gluten free,
dairy free, egg free baked falafel in lettuce pitta with maple tahini sauce.
First step of this recipe is all really simple. We are going to use a food processor, and
I'm just going to blitz it all together, and that takes any of the faff out of finely chopping
the chick peas. So, we have a tin of chick peas, drained and rinsed, we place those into
the food processor.
Next is two teaspoons of garlic oil. I like to use garlic oil because it's got a subtler
flavor than raw garlic cloves. And as you're just going to bake this from fresh, it makes
a real difference. And we've got half a red onion, roughly chopped, just throw it in there.
And, a little bit, again, of roughly chopped flat leaf parsley.
For a full list of ingredients just check the description box.
And next we are going to add half a teaspoon of baking powder, and this just helps give
the falafel a tiny little bit of oomf, which is what you want. And then we've got a mixture
of herbs and spices. We've got smoked paprika which adds a lovely smoky flavor, we've got
cumin and we've got coriander and a pinch of sea salt.
Finally, we add two teaspoons of your favorite sauce. This can be chili jam, or it could
be tahini, or it could be a hot sauce, it's whatever you favor. It just adds a nice bit
of depth and flavor. It won't overpower the falafel, it just gives a nice addition.
And then we just pulse it. You want the chick peas to become really finely chopped. You
might have to scrape down the sides and points just to make sure that everything's grinding
together.
You want it to be a paste, but with a bit of texture. So, a coarse paste would be a
good description. And as I said, we'll just scrape down the sides just to make sure that
you've got any loose bits and pieces mixed in.
And then one last blitz. You'll be able to smell already the spice mixture, which although
really simple, it's got a great kind of Ottoman, like Moroccan, Persian flavor.
So, we get a mixing bowl, and we'll just wipe down the blade, get that out of the way. And
take the falafel paste, which is what it is at the moment, and just scrape it in. The
next step is so incredibly easy. You'll just want to bind your falafel mixture by adding
a flour, but obviously we want gluten free flour, and this is where gram flower comes
in. Gram flour is chickpea flour, you can use it to make soca which is a French bread,
you can also use it in pancake mixtures or for baking, but of course it's perfect for
falafel because it's chick peas and chick peas. So we take our gram flour, I'd say three
to four tablespoons, but it really depends on how much moisture is in your chick peas,
and how moist your mixture is. But you want it to be bound together, so we'll start with
three, and then stir it together and see what kind of texture it is. You just want it to
still be slightly tacky but hold together nicely, so you can shape it into little patties.
And for this recipe we're going to bake the falafel, which isn't your usual option, normally
we fry falafel, and you could do that with this mixture as well, but I prefer to do it
in the oven. I think it's got a nice flavor, and although it looks a little less golden,
it tastes just as delicious. So that's four tablespoons of gram four, and then you'll
see that the mixture is holding together but still a paste, which is about right. We're
taking about a walnut size amount, and you'll see that it's quite tacky, that's totally
fine. If you're having a problem with it you can just oil your hands with a little bit
of olive oil which will help them slide off. And again we're going to place it on an oiled
baking tray to cook. So, just shape it into a little ball and place it on your baking
tray, and you can flatten it slightly but you really want them to be like little mini
patties. And they won't spread when you bake them so you can really place them quite close
together. So I'm just going to carry on making this falafel until we've used all the mixture
up, and then put it on the baking tray, and then it's into the oven at two hundred degrees
for about twenty five to thirty minutes.
So our falafel are out of the oven, they've been in there for about thirty minutes, and
I flipped them over halfway through so that they brown evenly. You'll see that they brown
top to bottom rather than around the edges, but it's all crisp because of the gram flour
inside them. So we'll let those cool for a little bit, and then we're going to make our
tahini maple dressing. So in this bowl I've got a really simple mixture of maple syrup
and tahini. Into that we're going to add the juice of half a lemon and depending on the
size or the juiciness of your lemon you can add a little bit more or a little bit less,
and dressings are so much to your own taste, so trust your own instinct if you like the
way it tastes and the texture then go with that. So stir the lemon juice in just until
it's combined. And then we have about a tablespoon of garlic oil, and again, it's intense garlic,
but it doesn't burn you like raw garlic would so it's a nice combination to have. And just
stir that through until it's all emulsified. And there's our tahini maple dressing made,
you can see it's all glossy and thick, and perfect for going into the lettuce pitta with
the falafel.
So place two or three of the baked falafel into your lettuce cup, let's do three for
this, and if you have any chopped tomato, or chopped avocado or extra fresh herbs, you
can add those at this point, the more color the better really, grated beetroot, all sorts.
And then we spoon over a little bit of the tahini and maple dressing, which acts as a
kind of sauce for your pitta. And then you curve up the lettuce cups like this and you
have a ready made pitta for your falafel or kebabs or a burger, perfect for summertime.
I'm going to go ahead and enjoy this, and hope to see you next time on the food for
all series.