Mario has shared his recipe for traditional Egyptian Falafel made with broad beans.  In Egypt they are called ta’ameya or literally, a bite of food. These light and tasty morsels make a wonderful meal or a snack at any time and are easy to make.

Mario has chosen to oven bake the falafel for a healthier alternative to frying them.

Falafel are formed using a plunger tool but if you don’t have one, you can roll the mixture into balls and press them into circular shape.

This mix makes about 50 falafel that can be eaten warm from the oven or frozen to be re-heated at a later date. They are certainly delicious.

Thank you Mario for sharing this with us.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dried split fava beans
• 1 red onion, quartered
• 1 leek, chop the white part from a well washed leak
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup fresh dill
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup fresh coriander
• 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1. Pre heat oven to 190º C Fan Forced
2. Grease a large oven tray or line with baking paper
3. Place fava beans in a large bowl and cover with water
4. Leave to soak for 8 hours, or overnight then drain
5. Combine soaked fava beans, red onion, parsley, fresh coriander, fresh dill, garlic, ground coriander, ground cumin , salt in a food proocessor
6. Process till well mixed
7. Place the mixture into a bowl
8. Shape the fava bean mixture with a press or small cutter (or make into small balls and flatten into the required shape)
9. Retract the plunger, fill with mixture and press out onto a tray
10. Place on baking trays and spray with olive oil spray
11. and bake in the pre heated oven for 30 minutes or until golden
12. When cooked remove from the oven
13. Allow the falafel to rest for few minutes before removing them to a serving dish
14. Serve with flat bread, tomato wedges, yoghurt cucumber dip (salatet zabadee), or tahini sauce, pickled cucumbers or turshi left (pink pickled turnips) and lettuce 
15. Freeze any leftover falafel in a click lock bag.

Traditonally Pink Pickled turnips, or Turshi left are served with the falafel. I include the recipe for these if you would like to make some. The pickles are easy to make and can be found at this link:

https://granthamgarden.org/2016/09/12/pink-pickled-turnips-turshi-left/