Ingredients for the Falafels
Ingredients for the Falafels
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
20g parsley, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 v small onion or 1/2 a normal one, chopped up finely
5 tbsp chickpea flour
1 tsp baking powder
Falafels
Method for the Falafels
Preheat oven to 180 c
Pulse chickpeas, garlic, coriander, cumin, parsley, salt and onion ( prefer cooked onion, but you can also use raw - just make sure it is chopped up finely) in food processor until coarsely chopped. Add flour and baking powder and pulse to combine
Roll mixture into 12 balls and place on lightly oiled baking sheet
Brush top of falafels with a little oil
Bake for 15 mins, turn and bake a further 15 mins. If getting too brown cover and continue to bake until warm through.
While the falafels are cooking make your dressing and kale & quinoa salad
Ingredients for Tahini, Cumin and Orange Dressing
2 tbsp tahini (I used whole tahini - its got more goodness in!)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large garlic clove
1 tsp cumin seeds, crushed
Juice of the orange
Generous grind black pepper
Method for Dressing
To make the dressing just whisk all ingredients together until creamy
Ingredients for Kale and Quinoa Salad
Kale ready for the salad
350g quinoa – I used a 3 colour quinoa to up the polyphenol content
350ml veg stock or water
2 tbsp olive oil
600g kale, tough stalks discarded, leaves shredded
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
½ tsp cumin seeds
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 orange, zest
1 handful sunflower seeds
1 large handful fresh coriander, chopped
Method for Kale and Quinoa Salad
Soak the quinoa in 700ml water, overnight or for as long as you can. If you can’t soak it overnight make sure to rinse really well
Drain the quinoa, transfer to a saucepan and cover in stock and bring to the boil. If you don’t have stock just use salted water. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-12 minutes until tender
Drain the quinoa and put in a large bowl, drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pan, add the coriander seeds, cumin seeds and warm through, add the kale, stir fry for 1-2 minutes, add the garlic and continue cooking until the kale is soft
Turn off heat, grate over the orange zest then mix the kale with the quinoa
Transfer the quinoa & kale mixture to your plates, nestle the falafels in the salad, pour over the dressing and sprinkle with sunflower seeds and fresh chopped coriander
You can also use shop bought falafels, just check ingredients if you need them to be gluten-free, I’ve used gram flour (from chickpeas) but many supermarket ones use wheat flour.
I’ve used a 3-colour quinoa - the more colour the better as you’ll get a wider variety of polyphenols (those all important plant compounds our gut microbes love), but regular quinoa is fine too. Quinoa is gluten-free, in fact it is not even a grain but a seed. Soaking the quinoa overnight helps it be more easily digested but just rinse it really well if you don’t have time. Alternatively many supermarkets sell handy pre-cooked bags of quinoa or other grains. So it is a bit more expensive and it comes in a bag, but if you are short of time I think they make a good choice. You could whip this up in about 10 mins with the time-savers.
