Falafels are the vegetarian equivalent to meatballs, crispy little fried morsels of spiced ground chickpeas. They are quite good all on their own with a yogurt sauce for dipping, or ketchup in the case of my children when they were very young. I made them the other night to serve with Tandoori rabbit -and I made both the rabbit and the falafels the extra-super-easy way. Falafels are not that difficult to make from scratch, as Nicole at Arctic Garden Studio shows (click here), but I must admit that I used a mix that's sold in the bulk section of both my local grocery store and food co-op.
Mix 2 c. falafel mix and 1 1/4 c. water. Let sit 15 minutes. Form balls and deep fry. Ta-da: falafels!
Tandoori rabbit (or chicken) is just as easy. Mix 2 T. to 1/2 c. Patak's Tandoori Paste with 1/3 -1/2 c. yogurt. Coat rabbit or chicken pieces with mix in a gallon Ziploc bag and leave to marinate several hours to overnight. Bake, uncovered at 350-375 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
Serve the rabbit with rice, mango chutney -I absolutely love making this chutney, so much so, that I generated quite a surplus and I had to force myself to NOT make any for awhile- and a vegetable (nappy carrots from the grocery story was what I had on hand). Serve the falafels with a yogurt sauce -I made the yogurt-tahini sauce from an earlier post of mine, The Middle East on a Flatbread (click here) -and pita breads.
Yogurt Tahini Sauce
Mix:
1 c. yogurt
2 T. tahini
1 T. lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
