Falafel Wraps
Emma and I started today, as we often do, by walking to camp instead of driving. It's pleasant, it's good exercise, and it's earth-friendly. You have to build in extra time in your day, but you do that for everything that's important to you, from earning a living to raising kids to going to the gym to watching "Stranger Things." Right?
Tonight's recipe for vegan "Falafel Wraps," from a cookbook called "The Mediterranean Table: Simple Recipes for Healthy Living on the Mediterranean Diet," came to me via a friend who reported this about her experience making the dish: "the kids were skeptical but I ended up having to make a second batch tonight because everyone wanted them in their lunch tomorrow. Score!!!" Score indeed; I had to try it!
I only used half the cayenne.
You know how when you add vinegar to baking soda, it bubbles? I got the bubbling effect when I added the baking soda and lemon juice to my falafel mix, too! I may also have issued the same squeal as my backup dancer in this video from December:
When I chopped everything up in the food processor, it LOOKED good, but did not hold together at all for the formation of balls. Where did I go wrong? And what to do?
My solution was to think ahead: instead of making a tahini sauce to drizzle on the completed balls, how about just add enough tahini to make the mix cohere into balls? I ended up adding about 5 oz. of tahini. The balls weren't really tight, but whatever. My only other idea involved adding eggs, but since I was trying this out as a vegan dish, that was a non-starter.
I put 18 patties on the tray and, well, they turned out okay! Crumbly, but okay.
And then I put them in the wraps, with spinach rather than lettuce (you KNOW how I feel about lettuce) and no sauce, and onions only for me, not for my irrationally onion-phobic backup dancer.
They tasted good enough, but heaven help me, guess what I felt these wraps needed? CHEESE, that's what. Cheese made from MILK. Which is NOT VEGAN. I'm new to this, so bear with me while my tastes catch up to my good intentions.
I still had a lot of falafel mix left, but as I contemplated forming it into balls/patties, it dawned on me: I might as well just spread the mix out on the tray and cook it, because it was just going to crumble inside a wrap anyway. And that is what I did, and I have no regrets.
All in all, this wasn't entirely a fala-FAIL (aha ha ha ha!) but I cannot call it a success. If anyone has a different falafel recipe for me to try, I'm all ears!
 |
| Walking to camp. Go Yankees! |
Tonight's recipe for vegan "Falafel Wraps," from a cookbook called "The Mediterranean Table: Simple Recipes for Healthy Living on the Mediterranean Diet," came to me via a friend who reported this about her experience making the dish: "the kids were skeptical but I ended up having to make a second batch tonight because everyone wanted them in their lunch tomorrow. Score!!!" Score indeed; I had to try it!
I only used half the cayenne.
You know how when you add vinegar to baking soda, it bubbles? I got the bubbling effect when I added the baking soda and lemon juice to my falafel mix, too! I may also have issued the same squeal as my backup dancer in this video from December:
When I chopped everything up in the food processor, it LOOKED good, but did not hold together at all for the formation of balls. Where did I go wrong? And what to do?
My solution was to think ahead: instead of making a tahini sauce to drizzle on the completed balls, how about just add enough tahini to make the mix cohere into balls? I ended up adding about 5 oz. of tahini. The balls weren't really tight, but whatever. My only other idea involved adding eggs, but since I was trying this out as a vegan dish, that was a non-starter.
I put 18 patties on the tray and, well, they turned out okay! Crumbly, but okay.
And then I put them in the wraps, with spinach rather than lettuce (you KNOW how I feel about lettuce) and no sauce, and onions only for me, not for my irrationally onion-phobic backup dancer.
They tasted good enough, but heaven help me, guess what I felt these wraps needed? CHEESE, that's what. Cheese made from MILK. Which is NOT VEGAN. I'm new to this, so bear with me while my tastes catch up to my good intentions.
I still had a lot of falafel mix left, but as I contemplated forming it into balls/patties, it dawned on me: I might as well just spread the mix out on the tray and cook it, because it was just going to crumble inside a wrap anyway. And that is what I did, and I have no regrets.
All in all, this wasn't entirely a fala-FAIL (aha ha ha ha!) but I cannot call it a success. If anyone has a different falafel recipe for me to try, I'm all ears!
Comments
Post a Comment