Homemade baked falafel with baba ghanouj and tahini sauce

Ingredients:

Tahini Sauce

1/2 cup tahini

3-5 minced garlic cloves

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup water (use to thin for preferred consistency)

Pinch cumin

Fresh parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Baba Ghanouj

1 large eggplant

1/4 cup tahini

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

3-5 minced garlic cloves

Pinch cumin

Fresh parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Falafel

1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans

1 15 oz can of fava beans

1 large onion, diced

3-5 minced garlic cloves

1 cup Panko or regular bread crumbs

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon

Pinch cumin

Fresh parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Other

1 heirloom tomato

Spring greens

Garlic naan

Mediterranean feta salsa (feta, sundried tomatoes, scallions, olives, in olive oil)

Directions:

Tahini Sauce

1. Pour tahini in a bowl and whisk
2. Add olive oil, garlic, cumin and parsely
3. Slowly stir in the lemon juice
4. Lastly, add water to thin the mixture to desired consistency
5. Chill until ready to serve

Baba Ghanouj

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
2. Using a fork, poke holes in intervals up and down the skin of the eggplant
3. Place on an oiled baking sheet in the oven to roast for about an hour, rotating the eggplant occasionally**
4. While the eggplant is roasting, combine tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, and parsley
5. When the skin of the eggplant appears blackened, remove from hit and let it cool briefly
6. Remove skin from the eggplant and scoop out the "meat" of the eggplant (including the seeds!) into a bowl
7. Combine the eggplant with the tahini-lemon juice mixture
8. Spread baba ghanouj in a shallow dish and top with parsley, 1 tablepoon, olive oil and splash of lemon

*** I used one big eggplant for this recipe, next time I'll use 2 smaller Italian eggplants because the thickest part of the large eggplant took a very long time to cook.

Baked Falafel

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
2. Drain and thoroughly rinse the beans
3. Mash beans in food processor
4. Add flour, baking soda, and olive oil
5. Add garlic, onion, and spices
6. Add about a 1/4 cup of bread crumbs to the mix and save the rest for caking to the outside of the falafel
7. Take the pastey mixture and form 1.5" balls and roll in Panko or breadcrumbs
8. Place on oiled baking sheet
9. Bake for about 15 minutes, occasionally flipping the patties over
10. Cook until browned and crispy on each side, cooked in the middle

Assemblage (my favorite part)

1. Lay down about 4 triangles of Naan bread
2. Next, layer with spring greens and diced heirloom tomato
3. Lay 3-5 falafel patties on the bed of greens
4. Add a generous dollop of baba ghanouj to the middle of the patties
5. Next, lay down a scoop of the Mediterranean feta salsa
6. Drizzle top-down with tahini sauce and the around the plate to dress the lettuce

Bon appetit!

So what's in it for you?

Let's talk about the magic of tahini, eggplant, and pan-frying vs. baking.

So, what is tahini? Usually found in the same aisle as peanut butter tahini is the paste of roasted, hulled (outer layer) sesame seeds. Most notably, tahini is used in hummus and endless Middle Eastern dishes. Because tahini paste is ground up it is easy to digest and the nutrients begin to the hit your blood stream within a half hour. For this reason, I made tahini and honey sandwiches while backpacking Europe to get a quick, healthy and long-lasting hunger and energy fix with about 3g protein/tablespoon. Tahini is packed with a variety of the Vitamin B's, which play a role in maintaining metabolism, the immune system, and muscle tone. Tahini is known to combat pancreatic cancer. But the real kicker? Tahini has a higher calcium concentration than any other food, making it a prime choice for lactose-intolerants to get their calcium fix. However, tahini is high in calories and oil so use with moderation.

Eggplant-- the other other white meat. I say this because I truly see why eggplant is referred to over and over again as the "savory" or "meaty" vegetable. I have a harder time cooking eggplant than I do steak. But it's always worth it! Well, unfortunately for this dish we removed the skin of the eggplant, which to me, is the most interesting and nutritional part. Nasunin is a powerful photonutrient found in the skin of the eggplant. Nasunin acts to protect the lipid membranes of brain cells to keep the bad free radicals away so they can go on doing the work that healthy brain cells do. But eggplant also has about 13 other phenolic compounds that act as antioxidants and may help to prevent cancer, lower cholesterol, improve blood flow and fight viruses and bacteria. Thus, eggplant (one of the top ten most healthful foods) is one of my favorite brain foods that is just bursting with antioxidant power!

Why did I bake my falafels? It's simple...even with olive oil pan-frying is still frying. Granted, this is not as bad as deep frying but while the oven's on why not bake? Additionally, my falafel ball mix ended up being a little more liquidy than desired so this was a good way to ensure that the inside would would cook and the outside would brown. If you choose not to bake you don't need the flour or baking soda.

Earth friendly tips.

Being a vegetarian dinner this dish was inherently more environmentally friendly than a meaty alternative (i.e; kebab or something). Disappointingly I found an irony in the tahini production system: the largest commercial producers of sesame seeds are India, China, and Mexico but the largest primary producers of tahini are Lebanon, Turkey, and Israel. For this recipe I bought Joyva Tahini from Whole Foods. Joyva is a 99-year-old family-run business based in Brooklyn. Their corporate website is down until further notice but I guess my question would be....did the seeds come all the way from India to Brooklyn? Then packaged and up to Boston? Or did they come from China, to Turkey, to Brooklyn, to Boston? Sometimes I wish the label on the back would list how many countries and how how many gallons of fuel it took to get to my apartment in Boston. Maybe I'll email the company and ask haha...