Baked Falafel Pie... an easy meal to feed a crowd!

Wow... you're getting two recipes within a week.... it's like the days when I first started my blog when I often used to get three recipes up here per week! That's when I had a full time job as an architect too.... crazy days, how did I find time to do it all!

These days I develop so many recipes for destinations beyond this blog itself... such as for Real Food Source, my own ebooks and other publications that sometimes this space loses the battle of priorities. I am looking to charge all that again- with one new recipe per week from the New Year onwards- an early resolution of sorts?

Anyway, back to this recipe!

This came about a couple of week ago as I was developing new recipes for my Lanzarote retreat.... I wanted something that was delicious, filling and easy to cook for 8-10 people (though the recipe below is halved to feed about four). This is a total winner and a lovely spin on the more traditional falafel balls.

It's not my brainchild- there are loads of similar creations across blog land- I got the idea from a general Pinterest search looking for meal image ideas rather than any one recipe in particular. I imagine you could tweak this to add in other herbs or spices to suit. You could also add a chunky salsa, guacamole or other topping instead of hummus if you preferred.

I realised this recipe would be also very similar to my classic nut roast (still a go-to favourite and great to have on standby in the freezer) and so I used that as the base and made a few ingredient tweaks.

Let me know what you think.... I'll let you know how it goes down with the guests on my retreat ;-)

Recipe: Baked Falafel Pie

Serves 3 portions with salad or 4-5 if serving as part of a larger dinner

Ingredients 

• 1 cup chopped nuts of choice

• 2 tbs olive oil

• One onion diced

• One large garlic clove minced

• 2 sun-dried tomatoes (optional for extra depth of flavour)

• 1 large carrot grated

• 1 medium courgette grated

• 1 cup chickpeas

• 1 cup oats (or cooked rice or quinoa or dry wholemeal breadcrumbs- GF if needed)

• 2 heaped tbs flax (or tapioca or potato flour)

• ¼ cup fresh coriander

• 1 tbs ground cumin

• 2 tbs soy sauce (GF if needed)

• Salt and pepper to taste

Topping:

• 1 tub hummus (or homemade if possible)

• 2 sliced avocados

• a sprinkle of salt and pepper

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180C. coarsely grind the nuts and set aside. Finely chop and sauté vegetables in olive oil for 5 mins until soft. Mix all remaining ingredients in large bowl and add vegetables and nuts to it.

Mix and mash together well. Add more oats (or another dry ingredient) if mixture is too wet or a little water or stick if too dry.

Press mixture firmly into a greased and lined medium baking dish (it should be around a generous inch thick). Bake for approx. 45 mins until golden on top, the inside will still be moist. Add hummus and avocado slices to serve with salad or cooked greens.

A quick dip... pea and black bean

Hummus is great, and I eat a lot of it… I mean a lot!!

A dip for raw veggies, a quick and easy base for my roasted vegetable tart, a simple spread for sandwiches or tortilla wraps… the list goes on. It’s strange as I never used to like raw carrot but since discovering hummous I can devour carrot stick after carrot stick and not get bored, it’s just something about the combination of those favours that really gets me going.

But, sometimes I fancy something slightly different.

This quick and simple dip takes literally a couple of minutes to put together and is super cheap and healthy. Great as a basic dip or spread, but also as a sauce for pasta- it makes a great alternative to tomato based sauces!  If you do use it as a sauce be sure to thin it out slightly with some soy milk (or any other non dairy milk or water ) as it coats the pasta so much better and the texture is much nicer.  The first time I used it this way I didn’t thin it out and it just didn’t do it for me, the ‘sauce’ was too thick and lost the silky coating I was after.

I have included jalapeno peppers to add a bit of a kick as I like a bit of heat, but feel free to omit these or adjust the amount to taste.

Recipe: pea and black bean dip

Makes one small bowl

Ingredients

• 2 garlic cloves (or 1tsp garlic paste)
• 1 ½ cups frozen peas (thawed)
• 1 cup cooked/canned black beans
• A few green jalapeno pepper slices
• 2 tbs fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp ground garamasala spice (or ground cumin)
• ½ red onion chopped
• Small handful fresh coriander (dried if no fresh available)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Blend all ingredients in food processor until smooth.

Store in the fridge. Best used within two days.

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