Baked broccoli and herb falafel

Our bodies are incredibly smart things. We often crave the foods that we need based on seasons – warming soup and stews in the winter, fresh fruit and salads in the summer. We instinctively know how to eat for the seasons and what we need to nourish our bodies. We just need to listen to our bodies to know what it is we are really craving. Sure, sometimes this may be a pizza and some beers (and yes, it’s perfectly okay to have a pizza and beer when this happens!) but for the most part our bodies will crave nutrient-dense foods that will provide the nourishment and comfort that our bodies truly need.

As it’s currently summer here in Tasmania we have been eating a lot of salads for dinner. An unseasonally cold and wet few days last week saw a brief encounter with some velvety cauliflower soup, but other than that we have been eating mostly seasonal and hence lots of light, fresh meals.  This is not only a quick, light and healthy meal, but it’s also quite economical now that our garden has started producing our summer crop of veggies. Our tomatoes and cucumbers aren’t quite there yet, but our greens are flourishing as are our herbs. Salads can tend to get a little monotonous sometimes so to mix it up I try and incorporate different ingredients where I can. 

These falafel weren’t originally intended for the blog. I shot the photos one night for an assignment for a food photography course that I’m currently doing, and after tasting the falafel and getting the double thumbs up from the boy I thought it only fair to write up the recipe to share here. 

The food photography course is with the incredibly talented Eva Kosmas Flores. I first learnt about Eva through Julia Mueller of The Roasted Root fame who took Eva’s class last summer. After checking out Eva’s stunning photography I emailed her straight away and put my name down for the next class, which started three weeks ago. Though I was enamored by Eva’s style of photography, I must admit that I was slightly dubious about doing a photography class online. As soon as the first lesson commenced however my worries subsided; Eva has such a lovely, natural warmth to her and not only knows her stuff but also has a great way of explaining things in away that makes it easy to take in and understand. I learnt more about camera settings in the first one-hour lesson than I did in the past 18 months of Googling how to use the manual settings on my camera! 

It’s been a great learning experience and I am excited to continue building upon my new-found skills. I think it’s important to continue to learn new things and constantly improve yourself, especially in areas where you hold a particular enthusiasm or passion. As much as Photoshop continues to frustrate me, as much as I sometimes rush the styling of a dish so that I can shoot it quickly to then eat it, it’s great having this little hobby that I truly love. I feel incredibly passionately about eating real, unprocessed, unrefined food, and eating it with enjoyment and satisfaction knowing that it not only tastes amazing but is nourishing our bodies and minds at the same time. And I’m also enjoying this blogging game – it’s still feels like a brand new, sometimes scary, sometimes intimidating, and often overwhelming, but the connections I’ve made, the things I have learnt, the outlet that it gives me and the lovely emails and comments I receive from all my readers makes it all worth it.

So with that, I’ll leave you with this recipe – if you have a food processor and an oven you can whip these up in less than half an hour and while they are baking, quickly throw together a salad for a complete meal. And apologies for the similar shots – this assignment was about camera angles and lighting so I didn’t restyle the dish, but if you want a different view, you can check out the behind the scenes shot I posted on my Instagram here.

Herbed broccoli falafel

2015-02-09 03:01:34

Beautifully herbed and fresh-tasting falafel, baked in the oven. A lighter version of the traditional middle eastern fried falafel.

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Prep Time

5 min

Cook Time

15 min

Prep Time

5 min

Cook Time

15 min

Ingredients

1. 6 large mint leaves
2. 1/4 cup chopped parsley
3. 1/4 coriander
4. 1/2 head broccoli, roughly chopped
5. 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
6. 1 spring onion (white + green parts)
7. 1 can chickpeas, drained
8. 1 Tbsp flour (I used coconut)
9. 1 tsp cumin
10. 1/2 tsp ground coriander
11. 3 Tbsp olive oil
12. 1 Tbsp psyllium husks

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200 C || 390 F
2. Add the first six ingredients (herbs, broccoli, garlic and spring onion) to a food processor and pulse a few times until the ingredients are broken down a little, then add the remaining ingredients and process until the mixture is roughly the size of breadcrumbs.
3. Shape the mixture into small patties and place on a lightly greased baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes, then gently flip and bake on the other side another 10 minutes.
4. Serve in pita or with a fresh salad.

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