A Middle Eastern food called falafel offers aromatic, vibrant flavours that will burst in your mouth.

A chickpea falafel paired with a good dipping sauce does make these crispy balls stand out in the flavour department.

I made a homemade dip with yogurt, cucumber, fresh chives, fresh basil, fresh mint, lime juice, salt, pepper, and bits of traditional feta cheese.

Letting this dip stay in the refrigerator overnight will give you the best taste as the flavours have time to come together.

If you decide to have no sauce with your falafel balls, you can enjoy them as they are. 

The cumin will stand out amongst all spices, as you want that traditional spice to steal the show.

Chickpeas don’t have much flavour, so you need to jazz up your falafel balls if you want them to taste good.

Serving Falafel Balls

Traditionally, you may find falafel in pita with a sauce ranging from hummus to tahini (sesame seed paste), or you can create your own falafel sauce like I have today.

You can find sesame tahini at most grocery stores in the international aisle, and it’s reasonably priced for what you get. 

Inside the pita bread, you can stuff it with lots of fresh vegetables, the falafel balls, and your sauce of choice.

When you bite into my falafel balls, hot, melted mozzarella will ooze out from the inside.

I have made my olive pita bread and stuffed a few crunchy balls inside, and it’s out of this world.

If you don’t fancy pita, you can easily take any bread you like and make a falafel sandwich.

Chickpeas 101

What is a chickpea?

I went to Wikipedia to learn all I needed about chickpeas simply because I’m not a chickpea specialist and wanted to learn more about chickpeas.

You might find this part of the recipe interesting if you are curious like me.

The chickpe, a also called the Cicer arietinum or better known as the garbanzo bean, “calavance” in Old Spanis,h is part of the legume family andis packed full of protei,d likely why my vegetarian friend serves chickpeas quite often to her family.

The chickpea is also one of the earliest cultivated legumes, with remains found in the Middle East, but also dates back to the French. 

There are two types of chickpeas that I didn’t know about, one is called Desi,  which has a smal,l darker seed and rougher coa,t and the othe,r called Kabul, i is a larger seed, lighter in colou,r and smooth.

According to Wiki, chickpeas are grown in the Mediterranean, western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Great Plain, and Australia.

You can also find black chickpeas called the “ce ner, grown only in Italy. I find this interesting, as we have a bag of black chickpeas.  

If you want to learn about chickpeas 1,01, click on the wiki link above and enjoy the history of chickpeas.

How To Cook Dry Chickpeas?

We prefer to buy dry chickpeas and hydrate them because the cost is far cheaper for our grocery budget.

We used to boil them in a pot, but babysitting the stove got a bit daunting.

We have a friend from India living in Canada who prepares many variations of chickpea recipes each week.

She used to boil them or use her pressure cooker, but now she tells us she uses the crockpot to hydrate her chickpeas.

She came up with a brilliant idea; we haven’t looked back.

Once a week, usually on the weekend, we plug in our crockpot, add in 2 or 3 cups of dry chickpeas, and cover the chickpeas with water.

We turn the crockpot on high for three hours, and voilà, cooked chickpe, and you don’t have to watch them.

You can buy canned chickpeas at every grocery store if you don’t care for the dry version.

Chickpea Snacks

I have also baked chickpeas, a recipe for a roasted chickpea snack that is well seasoned with various spices, coated in oil, and then dry-baked in the oven set at 350 degrees on a baking sheet until crunchy.

They are easy to make and pack for a snack at home, work, or play.

Are Falafel Balls Healthy?

If you plan to bake falafel balls in the oven, you would have a higher success rate of keeping the calories down and the cholesterol in check.

You can also flatten the balls and shallowly fry them in a frying pan instead of deep-frying, then drain them on paper towels.

We don’t eat these often; it’s considered more of a treat once in a while.

A falafel ball is also a perfect vegetarian food for vegetarians if you want something to satisfy your deep-fried cravings.

However, some people tend to cut some calories by making baked falafel balls, although I admit I have never tried it that way.

Food Truck Snacks

Most food trucks that offer falafel balls will offer the pita falafel, but I’m sure you could ask for a plate of balls instead.

I’m not sure any food truck has created mozzarella-filled afel, but if yyou you areing this, me credit fogive r the next best thing with falafel; ba’s fantastic.

I’m probably not the first to discover that mozzarella and falafel go together.

It certainly takes a boring falafel ball and turns it into a party in your mouth.

Store-Bought Falafel

Homemade is far superior to the boxed convenience type you can buy.

if you insist on making them from a box, you can pick up a box at almost any major grocery store.

I have seen them at Freshco, No Frills, Metro, and Food Basics.

How To Make Falafel Balls

Printable Recipe Down Below

• Prep time: 30 minutes
• Total time: 2 hours 30 minutes
• Cooking time: deep-fry until browned (3-4 minutes)
• Serving Size: Approximately 12- 14 falafel balls, depending on how big you make them

Falafel Ball Ingredients

• 1 cup of chickpeas, drained
• 1 cup of cubed mozzarella
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 cup of bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 sweet onion
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1/4 fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup fresh chives
• juice of 1 lime
• canola oil for deep-frying

Instructions

• Mash up your chickpeas in a bowl with a potato masher or fork. It’s fine if there are chunks, as I prefer the texture with chunks of chickpeas.
• Add all the other ingredients (except the mozzarella) to your food processor and whiz them until combined.
• Mix the contents of the food processor into the bowl of the mashed chickpeas and mix until combined.
• Roll the mixture into golfball-sized balls, press a cube of mozzarella in the middle, and form a uniform-sized ball with the mixture in your hand, then set on a platter or baking sheet.
• Put in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours so the flavours can come together.
• In a deep fryer, heat the oil, drop the falafel balls one at a time, and fry until golden brown.
• Remove from the deep-fryer and drain on paper towels.
• Serve with dipping sauce, tahini, hummus, tzatziki dip, or homemade cucumber feta sauce.
• Open your pita pouch, add a few falafel balls, lettuce, tomato, onion, and your choice of sauce to make a homemade sandwich

Cucumber Yogurt Feta Sauce

A tangy sauce perfect for dipping.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cucumber, chopped into small pieces
• 1 teaspoon of dill
• 6 fresh basil leaves, minced
• juice of half of a lime
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup of traditional feta crumbled
• 1 cup of plain Greek Yogurt
• 1/4 minced chives
• 4 or 5 sprigs of mint, minced

Instructions

• Add all the ingredients except the feta to a bowl and mix
• Fold in the feta cheese until combined
• Wrap and refrigerate overnight or for the 2 hours that the falafel balls are in the refrigerator.

Discussion: What is your favourite type of dip?

Leave me your comments below, and I’ll be sure to respond.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog.

Mr.CBB

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