Now that my mom has to feed so many vegans in her family she’s come up with some amazing recipes.  This is one of my favorite recipes my mom makes for us. 

by Elizabeth Bohnenstiehl

When I make Falafels I save the broth that is left over from crock potting the garbanzo beans down. I use the broth instead of water in the quinoa that goes in the Spring Salad Wilt. I also have enough Tzatiki Sauce left to use in the Spring Salad Wilt, so I basically have two amazing dinners for the price of one. If you have never had a falafel, it’s a treat. Here’s the first recipe.

Falafel

Falafel is a dish common in Egypt and Israel, and the Near East. It is fried chick-pea (garbanzo) balls, that are stuffed into pita bread together with lettuce, cucumber and topped with Vegan Tzatziki Sauce. We often have chopped onions, black olives, & tomatoes out, but the traditional taste would be just lettuce cucumber and sauce.

1 bag dried garbanzo beans, soak in frig. Overnight. Do not drain. Put in the crock pot with water level 2 inches over beans, and cook on high 6 or 7 hours. You can do this the day before so that you are not working with hot beans or if you have time you can let your beans cool.

• 1 tsp. Ground coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon ground garlic (1clove chopped fresh)
• 1 tsp. Ground cumin (no more that 1 tsp., to much cumin is to strong)
• 1⁄2 tsp. Cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
• 2 tablespoon dried chives
• 1 tablespoon organic cane sugar
• 1⁄4 cup flour

Drain your chick-peas but keep the broth.

In your processor, about a cup and a half at a time grind up your cooked chick-peas. You might have to put a little broth in but not to much. Process till smooth. Continue till you have it all ground. Put this into a mixing bowl and add coriander, garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper, lemon pepper, chives, sugar, and flour and mix in your mixer throughly. It might seems sticky, but you can now roll it into balls about the size of a quarter. Most people deep fry the balls in oil at 375 degrees for two or three minutes till golden brown. I don’t want the extra calories so I put olive oil in two large skillets, and fry them, turning them ever so often till they are golden brown. I think they taste just as good without all that oil.

Vegan Tzatziki Sauce

• 1 cup tahihi (sesame seed paste) (make sure you mix your tahihi well, it’s like natural peanut butter, the solids are at the bottom)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder (2 or 3 cloves fresh garlic)
• 1 or 2 cucumbers (processed with skin)
• 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
• 1 teaspoon dill
• 1⁄4 tsp cumin

Mix together. Save the leftover sauce for the next recipe.

Spring Salad Wilt with Quinoa

• Spring Salad Mix (One large bag, green & dark purple leaves)
• Leftover Vegan Tzatziki Sauce
• Quinoa made with leftover garbanzo broth instead of water.

Prepare quinoa ahead of time so that you can pull it out of the fridge when you need it.

To prepare quinoa, use two cups of liquid (garbanzo broth) per cup of quinoa, (do not salt it), combine liquid and quinoa in a saucepan or rice cooker. Bring the mixture to a vigorous boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, until quinoa is tender but still chewy, about 15 minutes. Refrigerate.

Directions:

1. Wash bagged salad mix, put in large wok skillet. (If you do not have wok skillet, large non stick skillet is fine.)
2. Drizzle Tzatziki Sauce over lettuce like you would a salad (don’t over do it)
3. Sprinkle about 1 cup and 1⁄2 prepared quinoa on top of that. (experiment, you might want a little more quinoa maybe 2 cups)
4. Begin cooking, turning mixture over as you wilt the lettuce. Don’t over cook it.
5. When it has cooked down, eat it while it’s hot.
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