Sunday 4 June 2017

Pinto Bean & Chickpea Falafels - Suma Blogger's Network

After recently making refried beans, I wanted to create another recipe which used dried pinto beans, for my latest Suma Bloggers post; pinto beans are great as a cheap, vegetarian source of protein because they don't require pre-soaking.

Although I've always used canned, cooked chick peas for falafels, it turns out that traditional recipes use soaked, raw chickpeas. I didn't have the time or inclination to soak my pulses for 12 hours, so I decided to boil them along with the pinto beans, without pre-soaking. This actually worked really well and I was pleased with the end result, which not only tasted good freshly cooked, but also worked well cold in wraps for my packed lunches.
  • 1 cup dried chickpeas
  • 1 cup dried pinto beans (from Suma)
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil, plus extra for frying
  • 1 onion, very finely chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 tbsp. chickpea/gram flour (from Suma)
  • 1 chilli, chopped (optional)
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika
  • salt and pepper to taste
Rapidly boil the pulses for 10 minutes. Then cover and simmer for a further hour.
When cooked, drain.

Fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil for a few minutes, until softened.
Add the spices and cook for a further minute.

Blend the chickpeas with the cooked onion and spices, plus the gram flour, until you have a fairly firm, dough-like mixture.

Roll into 20-24 small balls, using your hands.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm up.

Heat a few more tbsp. oil in a large frying pan on a medium-high heat. Cook the falafels for around 5-8 minutes until golden brown (you can deep fry if you prefer).

Serve in wraps, with salad and hummus.

 Suma Blogger's Network
Top Tip: A word of warning - these vegan and gluten-free falafels are quite fragile as they don't contain egg or breadcrumbs to bind them, so you need to turn them carefully when cooking!

Integrity Statement
As a member of the Suma Blogger's Network, I will receive a selection of complimentary products from Suma every two months, to use in recipe development, and will blog an original recipe for the Network. 


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