Falafel with Tzatziki and Hummus

I discovered falafel about 6 months ago. I'm hooked. I could eat this every week, easily. The leftovers, if there are any, reheat well so it makes an excellent lunch the next day. I started with this recipe and have tweaked it to my liking. There are boxed falafel mixes available in the grocery store. I tried one. Once. Never again. I'm sure there are some that are better than others, but the one I tried was bland and mushy and didn't hold a candle to this recipe. It's worth the extra effort to make it from scratch, but isn't that true of everything?

1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 egg
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 dash pepper
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup dry bread crumbs

  

Place onion, parsley, and garlic in food processor and blend until finely chopped. Add chickpeas and pulse until everything is blended together. Don't blend too much or the consistency of the chickpeas will be too thin. Transfer into a large bowl. Add egg, cumin, salt, pepper, cayenne, lemon juice, baking powder and olive oil. Mix together. Add bread crumbs a little at a time until mixture will hold together.  Form into small patties. I like to make them smaller, so I usually make around 12-15.

Heat olive oil in large skillet. Fry the falafel until brown on both sides. Transfer to plate lined with paper towel. Serve in pita pockets with spinach, feta, tomatoes, hummus and tzatziki sauce (recipes to follow). 

When making hummus and tzatziki I don't measure. I just taste frequently.  Tzatziki is traditionally made with cucumber. I don't really like cucumber, so we never have any in the house, so I always leave it out. I think it tastes just fine without it. If you need measurements,  there are lots of recipes out there that will give you exact measurements of both of these spreads. I'm only going to give approximations. Sorry.

Hummus 

1 can of chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved

1-2 Tbsp tahini

Several cloves of garlic

Lemon juice

Parsley

Salt

Paprika  

Blend everything in food processor, which is already dirty from making falafel, don't worry about cleaning it, you're basically using the same ingredients. Add the liquid from the chickpeas until desired consistency is reached.  

Tzatziki 

8 oz. plain yogurt

1-3 cloves of garlic, crushed

Salt

Pepper

Dill

Lemon juice 

Mix everything together in a bowl. Cover and let chill in refrigerator for an hour. The garlic will become more potent the longer it sits, so beware. If you'd like a thicker spread you can strain the yogurt first or just buy Greek yogurt, which is thicker, creamier and heavenly. 

The falael is in there, I promise, it's just buried.

In case you were wondering what it looks like after a couple bites

Review - Jay and I love everything about this dish. Josie likes it most of the time. Sometimes I can only get her to eat a pita with hummus and spinach, but hey, that's something at least. Eli only ate the pita and hummus this week. I think it might have been garlic overload for him. It adds up quick between the falafel and the two sauces. I can easily use a whole head of garlic for the three. Did I mention we are garlic fiends in this house?