Today reminded me of the line from the famous song Fool’s Garden by Lemon Tree. “Just another Lazy Sunday Afternoon”. Ya Ya! I know its “Rainy” But it rhymes, does it not? That’s all that matters 😉. By the way “Isolation is not good for me” also connects well given the time. So, I asked my google home to play it. It felt good to hear the song after a long time. And that’s when the mood to cook up something interesting struck me!
What could I make on a nice Sunday afternoon? It was sunny outside, a lot like the middle east. So why not one from the middle east. Falafel Wrap! My style 😉
While the dish remains true to the maxim ‘tasty and healthy’. It’s definitely not a quick recipe. While the final dish just may just look like a simple roll, but it takes a lot of effort to make good Falafel Wraps. This is no subway, where we just throw in some things and add some sauce! The dish takes a good 90 mins including preparation and cooking time. In this case we have made our own wraps with multigrain fiber-ed grain to keep it healthy. If you wish to make your own wraps, we have given the recipe for that as well in this post.
One can also use readymade tortilla wraps available in the supermarkets. That saves a lot of effort and time.
I have used a chickpea-based filling. Do note you can also meat and eggs and corn etc. depending on your diet. Falafel can be very versatile as a dish. Do note instead of frying one can also bake or air fry the chickpea patties, however I choose to lean a bit towards taste since it was a weekend afternoon lunch with drinks. Well let’s get to the ingredients list.
Ingredients – Serves Four.
Falafel
• 2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked overnight (don't use canned chickpeas)
• 1 cup onion, roughly chopped
• 1 cup coriander, roughly chopped (about a one large bunch)
• 1 cup cilantro, roughly chopped (about a one large bunch)
• 1 small green chile pepper, serrano or jalapeno pepper
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 4 tbsp chickpea flour
• Red Chilli powder to taste – Optional
• Sesame Seeds/Bread Crumbs
• Oil/Ghee (Clarified Butter) for frying
Wrap – You Can skip this If you buy readymade tortilla wraps.
• Multi Grain Flour
• Salt to taste.
Sauce
• Hung Curd
• Grated Cheese
• Grated Garlic – Optional
Fillings – You can also add cooked meat,scrambled eggs,corn or other veggies.
• Red Cabbage
• Green Cabbage
• Finely sliced onion
• Grated Cucumber
The Recipe
• Soak the dried chickpeas in water overnight. In case you wish to make
it immediately. Soak in hot water for 30-40 mins and steam in a pressure cooker for 10-15 mins till they become slightly soft.
• Drain the chickpeas and put them aside till they cool down.
• Add the chickpeas along with cilantro, cumin seeds, salt, cardamom, green chilli and black pepper to the food processor and let it grind until it resembles a rough texture. Set Aside.
• Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan and add the garlic sauté till it turns light brown.
• Add onions and fry till light brown. Add the red chilli powder.
• In a bowl transfer the onion mixture and the chickpea mixture. Add the chopped coriander leaves, chickpea flour and lemon juice. Mix well.
• Use your hands to make the mixture into patties. 2 Patties per wrap.
• Take a small plate spread the bread crumbs in them.
• Take a small bowl mix some water with a table spoon of chickpea flour.
• Dip the patty in the flour mix and then mop them nicely on the bread crumbs. Ensure the crumbs stick well on the surface and the patty does not break.
• Heat some oil in a shallow pan to shallow fry the patties. You can also deep fry, bake or air fry depending on your taste to health quotient.
• Once the oil is hot, fry the patty till they turn golden on both sides. Keep aside on a plate.
The Sauce
• Take a cup of hung curd and mix with ½ cup of grated cheese.
• Whip them till they are fluffy. Keep Aside.
The Wrap (You can buy a readymade tortilla wrap and skip this step)
• In a bowl take 3 Cups of Multi-Grain Flour. You can also use grained wheat or refined wheat flour.
• Add salt to taste.
• 1 tbsp of oil
• Add water and mix well with hand to make a soft dough. It should not be too hard or too soft.
• Roll them into flat pan cakes. If one is not good at getting the circular shape, invert a big bowl on the rough pan cake to get the circular shape right.
• Put it on a non-stick flat pan on medium flame. One side should be well cooked/ Well done. The other side should be rare/medium-done. Leave it a bit softer on the inside.
Fillings
Chop the vegetables long and fine. Set Aside.
Falafel Wrap
• Put the flat pan cake on a flat surface.
• Add a layer of veggies.
• Add a layer of sauce.
• Add two falafels per wrap. Slightly crush the falafels.
• Add another layer of Sauce.
• You can add salt and pepper if you want as per taste.
• Warp it up in a tissue.
• Wrap it in aluminum foil. Heat in oven for 5 mins just to warm it up.
Ta-Duh! Its ready!
Remove foil and serve fresh with pickles/mayo dip/salad.
Do note this is a very heavy dish. I can’t eat more than one. Young men maybe can eat two. It’s quite filling that way. You can serve this with salad/pickles/ garlic mayo or you can enjoy the wrap the way it is.
We hope you enjoyed the recipe as much as we enjoyed making it. If you wish to know anything about Indian recipes do mention in the comments and we will be happy to share the same with you.
