Student Eats: Homemade Falafels

I made a Student Eats awhile back over here and that was about a year ago! So I decided that I wanted to bring this little series back and indulge my readers with another aspect of me. Before I started college I trained in catering college for a year and so cooking has been something that I've always enjoyed especially experimenting with food! I'm hoping to do a few more of these around the year with some help from my house mate who will soon be starting up her own food and lifestyle blog which I will be sure to link once it is up and running! 

For these Falafel you will need:

A Falafel mix - You can make these entirely from scratch by blending chickpeas, garlic, lemon, olive oil and coriander into a paste. 

Baking Potatoes - I use one per person

Salad items of your choosing - cucumber and peppers work particularly well with this style cuisine

Olive oil or Fry Light 

Garlic Granules for the chip seasoning 

Salt & Pepper to taste.

1. First add water to your Falafel mix (usually about 170ml but check the packet instructions) - unless you have made them fresh in the blender in which case just leave to rest. Once the mix is a paste like texture leave to rest for 5 minutes,

2. Whilst the mix is resting chop your potatoes into chips these don't have to be perfect so just do them as well as you can and leave the skins on! Then place the chips into a pan and parboil for about 5 minutes until the chips have started to soften slightly. Once the chips have been brought to the boil and have started to soften slightly, drain them into a colander and let them dry slightly. 

3. Spray your baking trays with Fry Light or grease them with Olive Oil (depending on your preference) ready for the chips and falafel. Pre-heat the oven to 200oc 

4. Now your chips are out and cooling down you can roll the falafel mix into small balls, most packet mixes make about 12 falafel. 

5. Place your falafel and chips onto the baking trays and season the chips with garlic granules and salt (or any other preferred seasoning such as paprika or cayenne pepper!) 

Allow 20 minutes to cook the chips and around 8-10 minutes for the falafel (remembering to turn them over half way through cooking)

6. Whilst your food is in the oven you can utilise the time to make your salad up or whatever side dish you plan on having with this.

7. Don't do as I did and leave the falafel in the oven a tad to long as they will dry out like these ones did! Your falafel should be browned but not completely brown!

There you have it! My finished meal! This is a really simple week night meal that is vegetarian, filling and ultimately pretty damn cheap to prepare, yet your friends will think you're crazy nice for going out of your way cooking fancy middle eastern food for them! 

I hope you enjoyed today's post! I would love to hear your thoughts so don't be a stranger and comment below!