Cook like a Teacher: Falafel and Curried Cucumber Sauce

For some reason, I used to think falafel was some sort of magical food that was only procured from places with meats on spits. Turns out, falafel really isn't that difficult, in fact, it comes from the Arabian word meaning "Easier than you think" (actually it means 'little tasty food') -- in fact, you can probably throw this together in between episodes of season 4 of Arrested Development (No touching!). It's best to eat them in pocket bread filled with your favorite veggie add-ins and slathered with tons of creamy cucumber sauce. This recipe makes a ton of falafels and are super good chilled the next day for lunch or for a quick, satisfying snack.

Note: You can also bake these in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, turning once but really, really really -- they taste much better shallow fried.

Prep time:
Cucumber sauce - 5 minutes
Falafel 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes cook time)

Ingredients

Cucumber Sauce -

1/2 cucumber, grated (about 1/2 cup of pulp)

1 clove of garlic, grated
2 green onions, sliced
7 oz. plain greek yogurt
3.5 oz. light sour cream
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp paprika
juice from a small lime
salt/pepper and a squirt of honey

Falafel -

1 16 oz. can of garbanzo beans, drained
3/4 cup (a BIG handful) parsley
1 sweet onion, quartered
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 egg
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
drizzle of olive oil
pinch of cayenne, salt and pepper
1 c (plus more) plain breadcrumbs

Curried Cucumber Sauce

1. Grate the cucumber. Squeeze the juice out of the pulp in your (clean!) hands over the sink. Place drained pulp in a medium bowl.

2. Combine the remaining ingredients and refrigerate in an air-tight container. Tip - you can just fill the empty yogurt container half way with sour cream so you don't have to dirty a measuring cup.

Falafel

1. Mash the garbanzo beans using a potato masher. It should be pretty lumpy still and you should be able to see the shape of some of the beans.

2. In the blender: parsley, onion and garlic. Don't do what Donnie Don't Does aka -- don't put your ingredients the way I did -- instead, put the onion and garlic at the bottom and the parsley on top. It will blend easier this way.

Eventually it'll look liks this appetizing pea-soup, vomit concoction. You'll have to shake and pulse and smash and pulse until it becomes creamy. I know it looks gross but stay with me.

3. Add the parsley mixture to the mashed beans. I know, I know -- just hang in there.

4. Combine the egg, spices, baking powder, olive oil and lemon juice. Add it to the bean/parsley mixture.

5. Add a full cup of bread crumbs to the green mixture. Stir. Assess the mixture and add breadcrumbs a shake at a time until the mixture comes together and forms a pasty, applesaucy consistency. It should hold itself together in ball-form.

6. Start to form little discs. Roll a ball of the mixture (about 1.5 tbs, or the size of a ping pong ball) and then gently flatten it.

7. Heat about 1/4 c oil in a heavy-bottom skillet. Bring the heat up to medium. When the oil is hot enough (you can test it with a bit of the falafel mixture, it should sizzle) start placing your falafel discs in a circular pattern around the pan.