Day One: Falafel

Yesterday was the first day of my No-Cost Food Challenge. I served leftover pasta for lunch, and for dinner I opted for homemade falafel - for two reasons: my fresh coriander needed to be used or it would have ended in the garbage. Second, I had found what seemed a perfect recipe, from my newest cookbook called Jerusalem.

And the recipe really is perfect. I just had to re-read it a couple of times to make sure I’d understood it correctly: and yes, falafel are made out of soaked but uncooked chickpeas. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge as I don’t have a proper grinder to grind the chickpeas, so I had to manage with my Bamix hand blender. But it wasn’t impossible. And as a result I got the best falafel I’ve ever eaten: delicious and oh so crunchy! I changed the spices a bit to correspond to my taste. Feel free to add some cayenne pepper and cardamom as the original recipe suggests.

For about 30 falafel you need:

• 250g dried chickpeas, soaked 8-12 hours


• 1 smallish onion


• 1-2 garlic cloves


• a handful of chopped herbs - I used coriander and mint, parsley would work as well


• 1 tsp ground cumin


• ½ tsp ground coriander


• 1 tsp salt


• ½ tsp baking powder


• 1 ½ Tbsp plain flour


• 3 Tbsp water


• about 750 ml frying oil


• 2 Tbsp sesame seeds for coating

Drain chickpeas and combine them with chopped onion, crushed garlic, and chopped herbs. Now comes the tricky part: all of this should be turned into a paste, not too coarse, nor too mushy. It should be easier with a meat grinder, but I haven’t got one. So what I did was to take small amounts of chickpeas and pulse them with my hand mixer - the result wasn’t perfect, but it worked. Then it’s time to add spices - cumin, coriander, and salt, baking powder, flour, and water. Work the paste with your hands until everything is well combined.

Let the paste stand for at least one hour in the fridge before using it.

Heat the oil in a pan - the temperature should be about 180 C. I don’t have a kitchen thermometer either, so I use a trick I learned from my mother-in-law instead: I cut a raw potato wedge and test the temperature with it. If it starts kind of bubbling but not too much, the oil has the right temperature. (And if it starts browning immediately it’s too hot! This never happened to me, though, ‘cause I’m so so scared of burning the oil ;) )

Wet your hands and form small balls out of the batter. Coat them with some sesame seeds and fry 6-7 falafel at a time until they are golden brown - this takes about 4-6 minutes. Drain your falafel in a colander to get the extra oil out.

To avoid food waste, fry only the amount of falafel you’re going to serve at one meal. Falafel doesn’t taste that good the day after. The rest of the batter can be used next day, or even frozen and used within a month or so.

I served my falafel with cooked rice, potato mash for the kids, hummus, and avocado-cucumber-mint salad.

Hummus, or When the Chickpea Died and Went to Heaven

I had cooked too much chickpeas for my tagine (see my previous post) and was wondering what to do with them when I saw this recipe for hummus, a delicious spread made of cooked chickpeas, tahini paste, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. The recipe comes from my newest cookbook, called Jerusalem and written by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. A very recommendable book with interesting stories, great pictures - and foolproof recipes, at least so far!

I wanted to make a smaller portion, so the quantities are not exactly the same in the “Jerusalem” version of the recipe.

You need:

• 300g cooked chickpeas


• 150g tahini paste


• 1 big garlic clove or 2 smaller ones


• 2 Tbsp lemon juice


• salt to taste


• about 50ml water (I used the cooking water from the chickpeas)

Place all ingredients apart from water in a food processor bowl. Pulse until smooth, and then add enough water to form a creamy paste. Place your hummus in a serving bowl and cover. Let stand in room temperature about 30 minutes before serving. If anything is left over, store in the fridge.

I decorated my hummus with black olives, slices of red pepper, lemon, and some parsley, and served it with fresh white bread as a starter. Yum!

P.S. In my opinion, hummus is at its best the day you make it!

Winter Vegetable Tagine with Chickpeas and Apricots

I’m not a big fan of very spicy foods, yet I love dishes full of flavour - and so I fell in love with tagine at the first mouthful. The name of this dish comes from those cone-shaped earthenware pots in which tagine usually is cooked. I don’t have one, so I use a large pan instead.

In this recipe, I used winter vegetables that are both very rich in taste and low-budget at this time of the year. Try to use vegetables that require the same amount of time for cooking, or add the quick-cooking veggies later (especially if using sweet potatoes like I did).

I cooked more chickpeas than needed for this recipe, and ended up using the rest for making hummus (recipe will follow in my next post!). For a faster version, you can use canned chickpeas.

For 4-5 portions you need:

• 900g winter vegetables (I used swede, potato, sweet potato, carrot, celeriac, and butternut squash)
• 1 large onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 Tbsp olive oil for frying
• 2 tsp ras-el-hanout
• ⅓ tsp chili flakes (feel free to use more if you like it spicier)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 200g canned tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 125g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked
• a handful of dried apricots
• 1 Tbsp honey or agave syrup
• zest of half of a lemon
• salt and pepper to taste

Cut all vegetables in more or less equal-sized cubes. Chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a large pan, add onion and fry over medium heat for a few minutes. Then add garlic, chili, and ras-el-hanout, stir, and add rest of the vegetables. Fry over a low heat a couple of minutes more. Then add tomatoes, tomato paste, chickpeas, honey (or agave syrup), apricots, cinnamon stick, lemon, salt, and pepper. Add water if necessary. Let simmer over a low heat until all vegetables are tender, some 30 minutes or so. Stir occasionally and check if more water is needed.

Serve with couscous or bulgur and fresh coriander or flat-leaf parsley.