Visiting Turkey

Today we will discover the flavors of Turkey. The falafel with hummus is one of my favorite dishes, unfortunately it´s not very popular in my country and it is quite expensive. Luckily it is easy to prepare at home and of course self-made falafel is very cheap. The ingredients for falafel can vary, so you can choose them according to your taste and every time modify your recipe a little bit. I hope you will like it. Bon apetit!

Ingredients:

300g dried chickpea

1 onion

4 cloves of garlic

1 bunch of parsley

Sesame 100g

half lemon

olive oil

sea salt, pepper to taste

chili, curry (optional)

The chickpeas should be soaked overnight. The next day we separate one cup of chickpeas and cook it about 40 minutes - we will use it to make hummus. Falafel we prepare from uncooked chickpea, it is very important to remember it.                              

Falafel:

Chickpea put into a pot with some water and start to blend it slowly . While we are blending you can go adding more water because some pieces of chickpeas can fly away ;) Mash until the mixture becomes quite soft and uniform. 

Then chop the onion (you can also add garlic) and fry with olive oil. Add the onion and parsley to the mixed chickpeas, put spices and a pinch of sesame, blend it again. Shape into small balls, slightly flatten and fry in the pan. 

I don´t put a lot of oil, because I don´t like when falafel is very greasy, but if you prefer not so dry, fry it with a lot of olive oil. Fry it until you get golden brown shade, about 15 minutes over a low heat.

Hummus:

To prepare the original hummus you need also tahini (sesame paste) that you can buy in the supermarket but I do it my way. First fry the sesame seeds (about 10 tablespoons) until it becomes golden.

Then grind it with oil and add the cooked chickpeas,  3 cloves of garlic (you can use garlic press), squeezed lemon, salt and pepper to taste. Grind it again with a little water until get a smooth dough.

You can serve it as a main plate, tortilla wrap (or pita bread) spread with hummus, then add  falafel and  favorite vegatables. Eat & enjoy! 

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