Falafel Pie

I saw this Buzzfeed article of 30 vegan recipes that take less than 30 minutes. I'll be honest that most of them looked gross. Two got my attention though- falafel pie and cauliflower pizza bites.

The original falafel pie recipe was from theveganstoner.com which, even though I don't smoke pot, pretty accurately describes the way I eat and think about food. For two days- TWO DAYS- afterward I couldn't stop thinking about this awesome falafel pie. It's falafel mix pressed into a pie pan instead of the traditional falafel ball, topped with hummus, cucumber, tomato, kalamata olives and homemade vegan tzitziki sauce. 

I went to SuperTarget and was surprised they didn't have falafel mix. I could have sworn I had purchased it there in the past. I knew they didn't have the unflavored soy yogurt I needed for the tzatziki so I wasn't filled with rage about the ordeal. But I was very certain that Trader Joes would have both. Trader Joes had NEITHER! I couldn't believe it. So I said "F-word this S-word," drove home and improvised. On the way home, premenstrual and exhausted, I heard the Trader Joes sales associate's voice in my head over and over: "have you tried Whole Foods?" Pffft have I tried Whole Foods.

I started thjnking, the main ingredient in falafel is chickpeas. I had a can. I had spices. I could do this. After finding a falafel recipe I could trust, I noticed that the recipe was ACTUALLY a recipe FOR falafel pie, but using a falafel-from-scratch method, unlike the Vegan Stoner. 

I made mine gluten-free so my son Felix could eat it too (I had to add a couple more tablespoons of flour to form the dough into a ball, and I have a feeling that traditional flour would have made the crust crispier, but it was still good), and had two non-vegan friends over for dinner as well. I grilled some veggie kabobs to go with this. The grown-ups loved it and asked for seconds. I used the onions I had on the kabobs as additional falafel pie toppings, so next time I'm definitely throwing some onion on top of the pie before baking.

Believe it or not, the tzitziki sauce thing also pissed me off because I was not about to make it with vanilla flavored soy yogurt but couldn't go without it. Then I remembered that I made vegan ranch dip for my fried veggies a couple days prior. So I used that, finely diced 1/4 cucumber  into it and a little bit of lemon juice. It was perfect. So if you've got Veganaise and soy milk laying around you don't need soy yogurt to make this necessary sauce. 

FALAFEL PIE (recipe from Heat Oven to 350)

1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 large onion, roughly chopped
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp salt
crushed red pepper flakes to taste
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp baking powder
4 – 5 tablespoons flour
vegetable oil
1 tomato, roughly chopped
1 cucumber, roughly chopped
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, roughly chopped
3/4 cup hummus (prepared or homemade)
cucumber sauce/tzatziki for drizzling (suggested recipe below)

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place chickpeas, onion, parsley, cilantro, salt, red pepper flakes, garlic and cumin in bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Process until blended but not pureed — texture should be rougher than hummus.
3. Sprinkle in baking powder and 4 tablespoons of flour, and pulse. Add enough flour so dough can be formed into ball.
4. Coat bottom of 9″ pie pan with vegetable oil. Add falafel mix into pie pan and pat it down until flat. Brush top of falafel mix with more oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake just until top appears dry and the falafel is firm to, about 20-23 minutes.
5. Top baked falafel with hummus, cucumbers, tomatoes, and olives. Top with cucumber sauce (I spooned it into a ziploc bag and cut the corner of the bag with scissors to squeeze out uniformly) and serve.