Meatless Monday (A Few Hours Early)

So my friend Brigid posted another contest this time to try a vegan meal in a cuisine you've never cooked. 

We all know that it is not hard to find a cuisine I've never cooked.  But the first thing that popped into my head was falafel.  If you follow me on twitter you know I've been craving falafel for like three weeks. 

So I went to my handy-dandy Better Crocker Cookbook- true story the most delicious, alcoholic Sangria recipe I've ever made came from this cook book I love Sangria-

That's the Filafel-Millet Burger recipe.  You may remember when I talked about macrobiotics that I talked about eating millet- it's a grain that is a tonic to the spleen.  My crazy immune disease jacks with my spleen... so I try to include millet in my diet.  SO I decided to make this.

I picked up some falafel mix, the recipe didn't call for any particular one so I grabbed this one at Reasor's:

Then I gathered my ingredients... millet which I keep in a handy jar- I keep all my grain in jars in the cabinet.  It makes me feel more chef-fy.

 

So I took the millet and filafel mix and added the water and let it set for about 10 minutes. Then started making falafal-millet patties.

Some patties turned out better than others.


Remember last week when I talked about my love of garlic?  Same goes for olive oil.  Would bathe in the stuff if I could.  I brushed both sides of the patties with olive oil before cooking them.

Now, instead of frying the patties I used a tip off the back of the falafel mix and broiled them instead.  Partially cause Mems was pretty sure I'd burn the house down trying to fry something for the first time ever. 

Instead I broiled them 3 minutes on each side for a crispy patty... some got a little crumbly but that doesn't dampen the flavor.

Then I put together a little meatless meal... 2 falafel patties, hummus and some sliced baby carrots.  I would have loved some tahini dressing with it, but Mems and I were both cooking at the same time and she's super allergic to sesame so I didn't want to risk any tahini getting near her ingredients.

Totally didn't realize my picture didn't include the falafel on my plate... but I promise it was there. Also I had a little salad of spinach, almonds and raspberry vinaigerette. 



Then I sat down to eat and it was soo good.  The Falafel had a little different flavor than what I'm used to getting at Cafe Samana, but it still had the falafel flavor I'd been craving and a fun crunch from the millet.  I probably could have used a little more water in the mix and cooked them a little less on each side- but I just used the hummus to pick up the crumbly bits.

Plus I have a bout six patties still in the kitchen to eat this week.

Here's the recipe and cooking directions I used.

Falafel-Millet Patties (From Betty Crocker)
2 Cups dry falafel mix
1/4 cup Millet
1 1/3 cup water

Combine and let set 10 minutes to let the water soak into the mix.  I recommend adding another 1/3 cup water.
Then make them into 1/2 inch patties.  Brush both sides with olive oil and put on baking sheet.
Broil for 2-3 minutes on both sides.

I had my baking rack on the 2nd row down from the top and broiled about 3 minutes each- probably could have done about 30 less on each side.