About this recipe
A falafel-adjacent patty made from tinned chickpeas rather than dried ones, so it comes together in a single evening. Gram flour is milled chickpea and binds the mixture without any wheat at all.
Ingredients
- 800 g tinned chickpeastwo 400g tins, drained and thoroughly dried
- 0.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1.75 tsp fine sea salt
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small red onionfinely sliced
- 200 g baby plum tomatoesquartered
- 1 lemon unwaxed lemonsjuice and zest
- 1 cucumber cucumberhalf grated, half diced
- 250 g greek yogurt
- 100 ml light sunflower oilfor frying
- 0.5 tsp dried chilli flakes
- 1.5 tsp ground coriander seed
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 25 g fresh coriander leaves
- 30 g fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 3 cloves garlic cloves
- 1 medium onioncoarsely grated and squeezed dry
- 60 g gram flour (chickpea flour)
Method
- 1
Dry the drained chickpeas as thoroughly as you can on a clean tea towel. Wet chickpeas make a wet mixture, and a wet mixture falls apart in the pan.
If you have time, leave them spread out on the towel for twenty minutes to air-dry further. It genuinely improves how well the patties hold.
- 2
Put the chickpeas, two of the garlic cloves, the parsley, coriander leaves, cumin, ground coriander seed, chilli flakes, a teaspoon of the salt and the black pepper into a food processor.
- 3
Pulse in short bursts to a coarse, crumbly mixture that clumps when squeezed. Stop while you can still see individual pieces of chickpea; a smooth paste will fry into a dense, pasty patty.
- 4
Tip into a bowl and fold in the squeezed grated onion, the lemon zest and the gram flour. Squeeze a handful; if it does not hold, add another tablespoon of gram flour.
- 5
Shape into 12 patties about 2cm thick, pressing them firmly together. Chill for at least 20 minutes to firm up.
The chill is not optional. Warm patties slump and break the moment they hit hot oil.