I had my doubts about this recipe when I was planning it in my head but (if I say so myself) these tacos were STELLAR. My mother, L. and I devoured them and I garnered lavish praise from both of them, including L.'s highest accolade - "you can make these again".
Admittedly, these falafel may not satisfy purists: they are not made from dried chickpeas as per tradition, they are not deep fried and they are (gasp) culturally appropriated and stuffed into tacos but, for the rest of us, I reiterate: this idea really works. I would highly recommend giving them a try as is for dinner, or making slightly smaller falafel patties and serving them as nibbles topped with a dollop of sour cream, a trickle of hot sauce and a coriander leaf.
Most recipes for falafel at home recommend using a food processor but I suggest using my method, which basically involves squigging the garbanzo beans through my fingers until I get the texture that I want. I am not sure that squigging is an actual word but I bet all home cooks reading this will know exactly what I mean so I am keeping it. Using your hands to mash up the chickpeas is also helpful in determining how wet the mixture is and how much flour you need to use to firm it up.
I had planned on whipping tahini as per the intriguing recipe below but there is so much going on in this dish that I decided to save it for another time, though I did use regular tahini as one of my toppings.
2 cans garbanzo beans, roughly drained
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1 Tbsp red onion, finely chopped
Juice from one lemon
1/3 to 1/2 cup chickpea flour
1 tsp salt
12 corn tortillas (I bought purple corn tortillas because I thought they would be prettier against the beige of the falafel but any kind is fine)
2 Tbsps + 1 tsp olive oil
Toppings of your choice (see below)
Pour 2 teaspoons of the oil onto a baking tin and spread so that entire bottom of the tin is coated. Set aside.
Put the 2 cans of garbanzo beans in a bowl and mash with your fingers until you get the texture that you want. I wanted it semi chunky and substantial rather than smooth but made sure that, even though this was a very rough mash, no chickpeas stayed whole.
Add the salt, cumin, coriander, red onion, cilantro and lemon juice and mix together.
Start by adding 1/3 cup of chickpea flour (and going up to 1/2 cup if needed) and mix together. You need just enough chickpea flour to make a cohesive dough but your end product will be delicate and still slightly damp looking. Less is more, especially since the falafel will rest for an hour or so and the chickpea flour will absorb some of the remaining liquid during this time and firm up the patties that you make.
Gingerly form 12 balls from your mixture (hands are best), each slightly larger than a golf ball, and place on the oil coated baking tray, leaving room between each of them. Set aside to firm up for an hour or two.
When ready to cook, preheat oven to 375.
Before putting the falafel in the oven, press down gently on each ball to transform it into a flat patty. Brush the top of each patty with a bit of the 2 teaspoons of remaining olive oil.
Put in oven, cook for 15 minutes. At this point, turn the patties over (a spatula works best for this) and cook for 15 minutes more. Turn off oven but leave the falafel in it while you crisp up the tortillas.
You should have a tablespoon of oil left so heat one teaspoon of it in a frying pan over medium heat until sizzling. Add a tortilla, cook quickly on one side and then flip. I have found that a teaspoon of oil per every 4 tortillas does the trick, as does counting quickly to 24 as the cooking time for each side of the tortilla in the pan. The tortillas will quickly crisp up and become slightly puffy in places as they cook,
At this point, remove the falafel from the oven, put on a platter along with the tortillas and serve with the toppings of your choice. I served mine with tomato, cilantro leaves, some cabbage that I had chopped and tossed with a tiny bit of rice wine vinegar, pickled red onions, sour cream, grated Monterey Jack cheese, several different types of hot sauce and tahini that I had whisked with some lemon juice and some boiling water so that it was the consistency of heavy cream.
People can assemble their own tacos based on the selection of toppings that you choose to set out. The falafel will be nice and crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside but one crunchy topping for textural purposes, such as my cabbage option, is a must.
Falafel inspiration recipe, here.
Whipped tahini intriguing recipe ,here.