Anytime, Instant Falafel and Falafel chips

Falafel are deep fried Middle Eastern chickpea patties/balls.  Typically they are served on pita bread and topped with chopped veggies and drizzled with a tahini/sesame seed.  They are great as snacks or even part of a meal.  You can also shape them into large burger patties for a filling, protein rich vegetarian burger.

Making falafel takes time.  Chickpeas are first soaked overnight, boiled till tender then mashed and mixed with spices before being deep-fried.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could make your own instant, anytime falafel and falafel chips?

Yes, you can. Just use chickpea flour, mix in all the spices and store them in 1 cup portions in wide-mouth canning jars.  When the falafel craving hits, add hot water, fresh parsely and lemon juice to the falafel mix and shape into balls to deep-fry or into chips to bake in the oven.

Here’s the recipe for my quick and easy, anytime falafel.

Dry ingredients

1 cup chickpea/ garbanzo bean flour

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp garlic granules

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp sea salt (I used Real salt–win your own Real Salt in this giveaway)

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp dried parsley (optional because you’ll be adding fresh parsley later)

Wet ingredients

1/2 cup HOT water

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 Tbsp fresh parsley

Mix thoroughly all dry ingredients together (chickpea flour, cumin, coriander, garlic granules, tumeric, sea salt, onion powder, baking soda, dried parsley).   Store in a wide-mouth mason jar. Anytime you’d love some falafel balls or falafel chips, just add the wet ingredients: hot water, fresh lemon juice and fresh minced parsley and mix well.

To cook falafel balls or patties, shape batter into balls or patties and deep-fry till golden brown.

To make falafel chips, spread mixture as thinly as possible on a Silpat or parchment paper, score into diamonds with a pizza cutter and bake at 350 C for about 10 minutes (depends on thickness of cracker) till chips are golden brown in color.

Cheers,

Ann (http://momgateway.blogspot.com)

Savory Sesame Brown Rice Crackers

Make your own brown crackers?  Yes, you can.  I just did.

Why make your own?

Let me give you just one reason:  Did you know that they put talc in rice? TALC!  Talc ingestion is highly correlated with stomach cancer! We’ve been rice eaters for years and we just found this out by accident.

Hubby went to the store to buy brown rice.  Our usual brand was not in stock but he found this Korean brand instead.  It says Brown Rice No Talc U.S. No.1 Supreme Quality.  At the back, it says rinse rice lightly 3-4 times before cooking.

We found out talc is regularly used to polish the rice and make it shiny! A Japanese study showed that washing 9 times CANNOT remove the talc completely and talc is indestructable once ingested.  There is a prevailing hypothesis regarding high incidence of gastic cancer in Japan: chronic inflammation caused by bacterial infection enhanced by high salt intake and carcinogens (TALC) that leads to cancer.  Most Japanese and Korean moms wash the rice till the water runs clear. Washing and milling your own brown rice (unpolished rice) avoids the possibility of ingesting talc and possible residual fertilizers.

That’s why I’m thrilled with my Wondermill.  I can mill not just organic, talc-free rice, but also whole wheat, rye, beans, quinoa, teff,  nuts, lentils, chickpea and amaranth just to name a few!!

So here’s what you can do with your brown rice flour— my go to recipe for crispy, Savory Sesame Brown Rice Crackers.

Savory Sesame Brown Rice Crackers

3/4 cup brown rice flour
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp minced parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1  tsp brown sugar
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp onion powder (add more for oniony flavor)
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 Tbsp water

Measure out 2 cups brown rice. You will have more than enough brown rice flour for baking these crackers as you’ll be using only 3/4 cups brown rice flour for this recipe.

Washing rice gets rid of clinging starch left off in the processing so the cooked rice is not gluey.  It also removes any possible trace fungicides or additives like glucose so rinse brown rice four times, drain water and spread rice on a baking sheet and dry at 170 F for 25 min. or air dry.  Mill rice on the Wondermill.  It takes just 3 minutes!

Mix brown rice, sesame seeds, parsley, salt, onion powder, brown sugar, olive oil and water. Form a dough, squeezing if necessary. Using a rolling pin, spread it on parchment paper/ Silpat.  Crackers are crispier when dough is rolled thin.  Score dough into diamond shapes using a pizza cutter.  Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes or till lightly golden brown.  Make sure to let crackers cool so they crisp up. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Ann  (momgateway.blogspot.com)