Falafel pittas
These spicy chickpea cakes are a popular street food all over the Middle East. Served in pitta pockets with a colourful crunchy salad, they are deliciously healthy as well as fun to eat.
Ingredients
Serves: 4
- 2 x 400g cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
- 1 small egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- SALAD
- 100g red cabbage, finely shredded
- 1 carrot, coarsely grated
- 1/3 cucumber, cut into fine matchsticks
- 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
- TO SERVE 4 wholemeal pitta breads, 4 tbsp reduced-fat hummus, juice of ½ lemon
Method
Prep:50min ›
Cook:6min ›
Ready in:56min
- Put the chickpeas in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Add the garlic, cumin and ground coriander and process again until well mixed. Add the chilli, fresh coriander, egg and 1 tbsp of the flour and process again briefly. Season to taste. Transfer to a bowl and chill for about 30 minutes to firm the mixture.
- Meanwhile, prepare the salad: put the cabbage, carrot, cucumber and onion in a bowl and mix together.
- Flour your hands with the remaining flour and shape the chickpea mixture into 8 patties. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the patties, in batches if necessary, for about 3 minutes on each side until crisp and golden. Drain on kitchen paper.
- Meanwhile, warm the pitta breads in a toaster or under the grill and stir the lemon juice into the hummus to thin it slightly. Cut a slit lengthways in the side of each bread to form a pocket. Spread 1 tbsp of hummus inside each pocket, then stuff in 2 falafel with some salad. Serve immediately.
cook's tip
If you'd like to make your own hummus, see the hummus recipe under Hummus Salad (on this website).
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Reviews & ratings
Average global rating:
(6)
Reviews in English (5)
If you are taking this to work, give plenty of time for the falafel's to cool after cooking (i.e. do it the night before) AND build your colourful pitta just before you eat it (rather than pre-pitta'ing it)...or it may fall out of the foil and end up all over your accounting papers :/ WONDERFUL recipe, I'll try not to add my stupidity next time! - 04 Jun 2015
amazing thank you you saved my life i wanted a nice lunch and u have given me it - 21 Dec 2009
Easy to make and pretty tasty too, didn't have any fresh chilli which i think would probably have improved it. - 07 Nov 2010