Trying Veganism

exploring the world of vegan cooking

Falafel (Crumbs) from VwaV

Februar 11, 2008 um 3:35 · Gespeichert unter Falafel, Tahin, chickpeas, cucumber, hearty, tomato, vegetables

I had been so excited to make Falafel. I have always loved it and couldn’t wait to do it myself.

So last night I finally had enough time on my hands. I prepared the chickpea mixture and the tahini sauce. Both had to cool in the fridge for 30 minutes. And I was starving already. So were my boyfriend and my parents downstairs whom I had promised to bring some of my selfmade Falafel.

Finally, after 30 long minutes, I started shaping the patties. Or better yet, I tried. They totally fell apart. I squeezed them together as hard as I could and put them into the boiling oil. They fell apart and nothing but deep fried crumbs were left.
This was 1/4th of the mixture. Ugh!
I wasn’t too excited about the deep frying anyway, so I took out a pan and baked 3 patties a time in just a tiny bit of oil. They didn’t stay in shape too well either, but at least you could call them a patty.

Eventually, after lots of swearing, I had 9 small patties to serve to my hungry folks. 4 for my parents and 5 for my boyfriend and me. I forgot to take a picture until I had one more bite left and that was mostly just pita bread with some cucumber and tomato.
They tasted good though. My mom gave me a call „Wow, the patties tasted great. The sauce wasn’t right somehow, but the patties… mhh!“ I used VwaVs recipe.

Bottom line: I will not make these again. Although the taste was good, it was just too much work. Not to mention that my apartment stank like crazy. Like I had fried fish in tons of oil, yuck. Not to mention I almost fainted when I entered my kitchen this morning.

And a picture I just found online…
I always look like that when I walk past meat in the supermarket, when my boyfriend devours a steak, my mom prepares chicken etc.
But a few days ago I had the same facial expression when I passed some people grabbing huge amounts of gummi bear bags. All I wanted to say to them was „You are aware of the fact that you’re going to eat boiled pig skin, are you?“ I can’t help but shudder at this thought every single time. I can’t believe I used to eat this stuff.


Vogue Paris October 2007 | Photographer: Steven Klein

10 Kommentare »

  Jennifer wrote @ Februar 11, 2008 at 4:23

That is too bad your falafel didn’t turn out well. I love falafel too. I have never made my own, I get it when I go out to eat when I can, and made falafel from a boxed mixture a couple of times last summer and they weren’t that bad, though definitely not as good as what I have at restaurants. I’ll make sure to stay away from VwaV’s Falafel recipe!

That really sucks too to be hungry and have other hungry people waiting for so long!

If you are ever feeling daring enough to try making them again and want a couple of more recipe options, let me know. I have a couple of recipes for falafel that I’ve picked up from ‘here and there’ on the internet over time, but have yet to try. Maybe one of them would work out better.

I always like having garlicky hummus with my falafel. Over the summer I have falafel more as fresh, local veggies are in abundance, and am hoping to create or find a good vegan cucumber yogurt sauce to go with falafel, pita, veggies, whatever.

You know, I’m sitting here at my desk at work, thinking about falafel and getting really hungry. Am I the only one with a tendency to look at food blogs at work and torture myself by seeing and reading about all the yummy vegan food people have made?

I completely understand the look on that girls face in relation to the meat. ICK! I kinda made that face when I first saw it myself. :-)

  Lizzy wrote @ Februar 11, 2008 at 4:36

Yeah I was really disappointed, too. I figured and egg would have done the job of holding them together, but since that is not an option(any idea what vegan ingredient would help here?) I’ll just keep buying it at Habibi(if you should ever be in Berlin, make sure to try Falafel at Habibi, it is perfection!).
I wouldn’t mind trying a few more recipes, but I can’t stand the smell… seriously, this morning I thought to myself „This is what you must smell like every day when you’re working at Mc Donalds, yuck!“

Hey, I’m still at work, too. But I’ll knock off in 27 minutes ;)
And I spend so much time browsing food blogs =p I’m afraid they’ll fire me because I hardly get any work done. Nah, I just don’t have much to do at the moment so it’s okay =)

I thought it might be not such a great idea to post this, because I guess every vegan would make that face. But I just loved how the expression is exactly how I tend to react.

  ChocolateCoveredVegan wrote @ Februar 11, 2008 at 5:26

I know I can’t believe I used to eat that stuff either! I mean, my sister and I used to actually fight over who would get the „juice“ from the roast beef… the „juice“, of course, was actually BLOOD! Ugh it’s just too gross to even think about anymore! My sister’s favorite animal is the pig, yet she has no qualms about eating ham! Why can’t people see the backwardness of this?!

*ends rant*

The Friends’ episode I watched the other day was the one where Monica has to work in the diner and get inflatable boobs hehe. :o )

  Jennifer wrote @ Februar 11, 2008 at 6:05

You might try using some egg replacer for that. I use Ener-G brand which seems to work really well. I know you can also use ground flax seeds and I believe tapioca flour as an egg replacer, but unfortunately, I’m not sure how to do that. I bet a quick web search would remedy that though.

That is weird, I didn’t recall falafel smelling TOO bad. I have never been a huge fan of the smell of chickpeas, though I love the way they taste. But it has never caused one of those ‘get out of house’ kinda smells like sauerkraut or something. Sauerkraut, ewww. I always bake mine too; maybe it is the combination of chickpeas, spices, and oil or something that makes such a stink.

I was confused about your getting off work so soon until I realized – AHA she lives in Germany. It is just now lunch time here. I too spend a lot of time at work looking at food blogs. :-) I have been doing quite a bit of waiting lately as we have been having data issues at our office, so I got to spend time enjoying good food blogs in my office with the heat turned up nice and toasty (I love that my office used to be a dorm so each of our individual offices has a heater/AC and a bathroom in it – unfortunately, I share the ‘bathroom’ with one of my co-workers and it is used as a storage facility not a bathroom). Man, I work so hard :-) . Now our data is available, so I get to work on Excel Pivot Tables so I can fill out the University’s Common Data Set – this is all a fancy way of saying ‘manipulate the data how they want it and report it’. Such is the life of an Institutional Research Analyst. 

I like that the picture helps remind us all why we are vegans! I’m with Chocolate Covered, can you believe we used to WILLINGLY eat this stuff? Ick.

  Ashasarala wrote @ Februar 11, 2008 at 9:08

There are some falafel recipes that are probably simpler, but at least your patties came out tasting good. Nothing is more frustrating than having a meal come completely undone. But I guess that’s a part of learning and all.

I get the same face whenever I see anyone eating unnatural foods and over-consuming. How did human beings become this way? We’ll just never know.

  Romina wrote @ Februar 11, 2008 at 11:09

I’m so sorry to hear your falafel didn’t turn out. =( I have a great recipe that works everytime. I got it from a vegetarian teen cookbook, but I don’t remember what it’s called.

For 20 patties:
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas
- 2 tbsp. whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp. oil
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
- 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1/8 tsp. salt

1. Place the chickpeas in a large bowl and mash. Add the flour and oil and mix well. Sprinkle spices evenly and mix well.
2. Form the mixture into balls, then flatten to form patties. (If dry, add water)
3. Preheat a griddle. Oil it. Place the patties on the griddle and cook until brown and crisp. Turn patties several times.

As for that picture, I feel the same way. I’m absolutely disgusted when I see raw meat. I always remember not wanting to touch it when I was a child, even if it was packaged. Yuck! And gummy bears are just awful. Gelatin is disgusting! How can people eat it?

  Ruby Red Vegan wrote @ Februar 11, 2008 at 4:22

oh my, i LOVE that picture!

sorry to hear about the disappointing falafel. poo. :( after you went through all that work and waiting and hunger too!

  Lizzy wrote @ Februar 11, 2008 at 10:23

Katie – *shudders* Luckily we don’t do that anymore. Aww, last night I saw a Show and they had an animal trainer as a guest who brought her two mini pigs. And as they sat there and did little tricks and acted like dogs I thought to myself „How could anyone eat an animal???“ I used to be in the country a lot as a kid and I always had „my own“ little calf to take care of and baby kittens and so on. I don’t want to be responsible for calfs dying. I can just as well drink tasty soy milk! I don’t see why many people don’t (want to) see the cruelty behind the dairy industry.

Jennifer – It was definitely the smell of the hot oil… I had my windows open for almost 24 hours and the smell’s still there, ugh.
I was wondering if you could bake them in the oven, but I didn’t find anything on the internet.
How long do you bake yours? And at how many degress? Baked Falafel, now that would be perfect!

Ashasarala – At least we can say that we don’t have to worry about a bad Karma! =)

Romina – Thanks so much for the recipe. Maybe I should have added some oil, too. Somehow that didn’t come to my mind. I’ll definitely give it another try.
Me, too! I was always so disgusted when my mom stood in the kitchen preparing meat. Never in my life have I touched raw meat *shudders* For me it would be just like touching a skinned human corpse.

Ruby – I think I’m going to print it out and stick it to my fridge.

Yeah it probably wouldn’t have annoyed me that much had I not been that hungry.

  Jennifer wrote @ Februar 12, 2008 at 8:04

I wish I could remember. This are falafel I made out of a box (for shame I know) and the baking directions were on the box! :-(

  Jennifer wrote @ Februar 12, 2008 at 8:07

I meant ‘these were’ not ‘this are’, though if I left it as is, it would really show the substance of the American education system.

‘I are smart!’

:-)


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