For me, this is the perfect recipe for getting rid of all the leftovers in your fridge! You can pre-make it and freeze until needed. Then just reheat from a cold oven. Serve them with pita bread, tzaziki, hummus, feta, olives, and fresh salad for a full Greek treat.
Makes about 24 nugget-sized falafel patties
Ingredients
- 1 palm-sized sweet potato, scrubbed
- 1/2 cup cooked white or brown rice
- 1/2 cup cooked quinoa (I used mixed colors)
- 1/2 cup raw almonds
- 1 egg, lightly whisked
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 large cloves of garlic, finely grated
- 1 small red onion, finely chopped
- 1/8 tsp ground coriander
- 1 handful of fresh coriander leaves and stems, finely chopped
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 heaping tsp ground cumin
- Pinch of ground cardamom
- Vegetable oil for frying
Recipe Preparation
Preheat oven to 180℃, with rack in middle.
Poke sweet potato all over with a fork and tightly wrap in aluminum foil. Place on rimmed baking sheet and bake in oven for 45-60 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven and let cool. Keep oven on and turn heat down to 60℃.
Heat oil in small frying pan, then add chopped onion and grated garlic. Sauté until translucent and fragrant. Add ground coriander, cayenne, cumin, and cardamom. Season with pinch of salt and pepper and toss with wooden spatula until onion mixture is well coated with spices. Set aside to cool.
In small food processor, pulse and ground almonds into rough meal and set aside.
Once sweet potato is cool enough to handle, peel skin, remove flesh, and roughly mash with fork in large mixing bowl. Mix mashed sweet potato with cooked rice and quinoa, flour, spiced onion mixture, ground almonds, chopped fresh coriander, salt, and egg until well combined. You should get the consistency of banana bread batter.
Make ahead: batter can be kept in fridge, covered, for up to one day.
Prepare non-stick baking sheet. Heat about 1 cm of vegetable oil in frying pan on medium-high heat. To test oil temperature, drop in a small amount of batter. If it bubbles within seconds, the oil is ready for shallow frying.
Using 2 tablespoons or an ice cream scoop, scoop out about 2 tbsp of batter and slightly shape into an oval. Slowly lower patties into oil and fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Repeat for remaining batter, frying in batches to avoid lowering oil temperature too quickly. Transfer cooked falafel to non-stick baking sheet and keep warm in oven until serving.
Serve warm with tzaziki (click HERE for homemade tzaziki recipe), hummus (click HERE for homemade hummus recipe), pita bread(click HERE for homemade pita recipe), olives, and feta cheese.
Leave a Reply