Falafel Tacos

Once again, this winner of a recipe was first pinned by the same friend who made the baked oatmeal and the Mexican Stew. She's got good taste, what can I say? We had this for Valentine’s Day dinner this year. They are incredibly good and full of flavor, and I can't wait to have them again.

Ingredients

Falafel:

• ½ C pine nuts
• ½ C cilantro (for us, it’s about half a bunch as it comes from the store)
• ¼ C chives
• 1 16-ounce can chickpeas (drain well and reserve the liquid in case you need it when forming the falafels); or make your own, and use 2 cups
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ C onion, diced
• ½ t cumin
• ½ t cayenne (optional but you’ll be sorry if you don’t add it)
• ½ t salt
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 T flour
• 2 T olive oil (plus a little more for brushing on top—we use our Misto for that step)

Amazing harissa

Green harissa:

• 2 T cumin seeds
• 1 T coriander seeds
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 jalapenos, seeded and diced
• ½ C cilantro (there’s the rest of the bunch)
• 3 T dried parsley 
• Zest from half a lemon
• Juice from a whole lemon
• ½ t salt
• Pinch red pepper flakes

Yummy toppings

Tacos:

• Corn tortillas
• Avocado, sliced
• Diced tomatoes (we use cherry tomatoes, they taste better especially in winter)

Directions:

Falafal:

1. Using a food processor, pulse the pine nuts and the chickpeas until the nuts are evenly ground. Add the rest of the falafel ingredients and pulse until the mixture is smooth but with some chunkiness to it. 
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. With your hands, roll about a teaspoon of the mixture into a ball and place on the baking sheet. Continue until all the mixture is formed into little balls and refrigerate for two hours. If you don’t, your falafel may not be as firm after baking as you’d like. 

Harissa:

1. Preheat the oven to 400⁰ (this is for the falafel). 
2. In a small skillet, lightly toast the cumin and coriander seeds over low heat for a couple of minutes until they are fragrant. Remove them from the heat and allow them to cool. 
3. Place the toasted cumin and coriander along with the rest of the harissa ingredients except for the olive oil into a food processor. While the food processor is running, slowly add in the olive oil until the harissa is thick but not too thick. 

Putting it all together:

1. Remove the falafel from the refrigerator, and brush the tops with olive oil. We use our Misto for this step. 
2. Bake the falafel for about 30 minutes until they are brown and crispy. 
3. If you want to, warm the tortillas. 
4. Spread some harissa on the tortilla, top with avocado, tomatoes and a falafel patty or two. 
5. Enjoy!

Falafel cookies!

In the interest of sparing anyone shock at what the falafels look like after baking, here's a photo of our falafel cookies, as we called them. We think it's because we didn't drain the chickpeas well enough.