There are loads of recipes out there for falafel, but many of them use tinned chickpeas. However, the traditional way to make falafel is with uncooked beans, soaked in water, then ground to a pulp with onion, spices and parsley, then formed into patties and deep fried until crisp.

Mark Bittman has a traditional recipe for falafel in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. The recipe (posted below) is good, but a little finicky. When he says to “pulse the [soaked] beans until smooth” in a food processor, he really means “run the food processor as long as you can without burning out the motor”. You want to pulse the beans for as long as your food processor can handle, scraping the sides along the way. It’s a lot like making nut butter – pulse and scrape, pulse and scrape.

The other change is in the cooking. Bittman’s recipe follows the traditional technique of deep frying, but when I tried this, the falafels were WAY too oily. They do need some oil to make them tasty, but an oil-sponge is not what I was after. I discovered that a thin layer of oil in a non-stick pan works just as well, and I was even able to make a couple larger falafel “burgers” that I look forward to trying on a bun with all the fixins.

When I finally got the hang of it, the falafels were awesome – really tasty with couscous, lots of fresh salad, greek yogurt and spicy tomato sauce. Not only are they healthy balls of beany goodness, but they’re also super cheap to make as Leigh shows us on Cheap Healthy Good. Just a $1.98 for the whole batch – how awesome is that? Leigh’s blog post has some more useful notes on Bittman’s recipe and is well worth reading if you’re looking to make falafel the traditional way.

Now, a short break from ball talk to Monday’s breakdown of food and fitness:

• Gym: 20 minutes of uphill run/walking, stretch, 3 sets – 6 reps – 60kg leg presses, 3 sets – 8 reps – 20kg assisted pullups, 2 sets of 20 lunges w/ 5kg freeweights, 3 sets – 8 reps – 10kg dumbbell rows, 10min row machine, stretching and some sit-ups on the balance ball
• Breakfast: 50g muesli, 100g Yeovalley Natural yogurt, 1/2 banana, ~10 grapes, coffee
• Lunch: Peppers stuffed with couscous and butter beans with baked mushrooms and tomato sauce and purple sprouting broccoli (leftovers unite!)
• Snack: Apple slices with cottage cheese
• Dinner: Falafel and couscous with lots of salad, greek yogurt and spicy tomato sauce

Breakfast

50g muesli, 100g Yeovalley Natural yogurt, 1/2 banana, ~10 grapes, coffee

Lunch

Peppers stuffed with couscous and butter beans with baked mushrooms and tomato sauce and purple sprouting broccoli (leftovers unite!)

Snack

Apple slices with cottage cheese

Dinner

Falafel and couscous with lots of salad, greek yogurt and spicy tomato sauce