With the hot days of summer, I’ve been getting into a slight rut of salads and quick meals to make in order to stay cool. That’s getting old! So it was time to try something new. My sister had mentioned a few times that falafel is delicious so I thought I’d look into making it. Turns out, it’s very easy to make and is healthy to boot. I will definitely be making Falafel again.

I checked out several recipes then made up my own in order to have it fit into a low FODMAP diet. For example, instead of onions, I used green onion and replaced garlic with garlic infused oil. There are also two camps with Falafel. The traditional way is to get dried chickpeas and soak them. Or you can drain canned chickpeas and remove excess moisture with paper towels/kitchen roll. Purists, understandably, don’t like this method and that’s ok. You just need to use a bit of flour with canned chickpeas. I made the mistake the first time and didn’t use the flour as the mixture seemed quite firm. It wasn’t and we ended up with a falafel spread. Still tasted really good but not what I was going for!

I made homemade gyros and tzatziki sauce to go along with the falafel.

Technique for An Easy Dinner with Falafel

Drain the chick peas, also known as garbanzo beans, and let them sit for at least half an hour to dry a bit.

Put the rest of the ingredients, except the garlic oil, into a food processor.

Pulse the ingredients until they are well incorporated.

Heat up the oil in a large skillet. Form the falafel into palm sized oval patties.

Place into the skillet and cook until the bottom is browned then flip and cook until the other side is browned. While these are cooking, finish up the gyros and prep the ingredients you want in the gyros. I did up lettuce and tomatoes.

Layer the lettuce, tomato, falafel and tzatziki sauce onto the gyro.

Fold and enjoy.

We’ve been introducing more vegetarian meals to our diet. It’s cheaper, healthier and better for the environment. I read a fact the other day that half the world’s potato crops go to feed animals. Not that we’re giving up meat, just being more selective in our meals. We’re already in the habit of sourcing humanely raised local meat but it was time for more balance. Now, with a teenage boy in the house who is insisting on growing like a weed, I try to find meals he’ll down without skipping a beat. I was quite happy when he gave this meal a thumbs up. An Easy Dinner with Falafel has loads of flavour and seriously easy to make.