Baked Falafels

• Baked Falafels
• 2 cups canned garbanzo beans
• 1/2 onion
• 1/4 cup toasted walnuts
• 1 cup parsley
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt (add more or less per your taste)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 5 pita pockets - cut in half
• 1 large or 2 small tomatoes - sliced
• 1 cucumber - sliced
• Tahini-Yogurt Sauce
• 1 cup plain non-fat greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
• 1 tablespoon tbsp Zahtar or 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• A few turns of black pepper or 1 tsp crushed red pepper

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
2. In a food processor, pulse the ingredients in three steps in the following order: first -> toasted walnuts, second -> parsley + onion + garlic, third -> garbanzo beans + crushed red pepper + salt + baking soda + lemon juice + extra virgin olive oil. Pulse until everything is well incorporated but make sure you don't over do it or the mixture will become too mushy and difficult to work with. Side note: I made the mistake of putting everything in the food processor at once - mainly for photographing purposes. It was a huge mistake. The ingredients didn't blend too well. I had to pick out the walnuts, chunky onion and garlic pieces and blend them separately. It just ended up taking more time than anticipated.
3. Make 2 inch balls using your hands or use a small ice cream scoop and scoop the mixture onto a parchment or aluminum foil lined baking sheet.
4. Bake for 20 minutes, flipping them over halfway through.
5. Put all ingredients in a blender and run the blender until everything is well incorporated. You can choose to whisk all the ingredients by hand if you want.
6. Cover and refrigerate in a glass jar until you're ready to use it.
7. Place sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and two falafel balls in a pita pocket. Drizzle with Tahini-Yogurt sauce recipe below.

falafels, garbanzo beans, onion, walnuts, parsley, garlic, red pepper, ground cumin, salt, baking soda, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes, cucumber, tahiniyogurt sauce, greek yogurt, tahini, ground cumin, salt, turns of black pepper

Taken from food52.com/recipes/27669-baked-falafels (may not work)