Crockpot Falafel

I was a little bit surprised that this worked as well as it did.  I should have used a food processor to make the chickpeas more fine but other than that I was really happy with the results!

Thanks to Stephanie O'Dea from Crockpot 365!  She's my crockpot hero.

Crockpot Falafel

1 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans (chick peas)

1/2 onion, finely chopped (I used a yellow onion, red is okay too, if you like that flavor)

1 tablespoon dried parsley (dry is better than fresh because it's too wet)

2 cloves minced garlic

1 egg

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

 juice from 1 lemon (that's a lemon. a weird looking lemon, but a lemon nonetheless)

1/2 to 3/4 cup bread crumbs (I have gluten free crumbs made from a loaf of brown rice bread that I keep in the freezer)

2 tablespoons olive oil (for the bottom of your crock)

The Directions.

Take a deep breath. It looks like there are a lot of ingredients, but this comes together awfully quick. I seriously only spent 25 minutes from start to finish. The hardest part was getting all the spice bottles arranged for the photo.

Drain garbanzo beans. Dump them into a mixing bowl and smash them with a fork. Set aside.

Get out your blender or food processor (I used our vitamix. I love that thing!). Blend together all of the spices, the onion, the garlic, the egg, and the lemon juice.

Pour on top of your smashed garbanzo beans. Use your fork to mix together, and add the breadcrumbs slowly until the mixture is wet and sticky but can be formed into balls nicely. I needed 3/4 of a cup of breadcrumbs.

Pour 2 T of olive oil into the bottom of your crockpot stoneware insert.

Form squished golf-ball sized patties of falafel. Dip each side into the olive oil and then nestle into your crockpot. It's okay if they overlap or are on top of each other.

Cook on high for 2-5 hours. Ours cooked on high for 3.5 hours--you will know that the falafels are done when they turn brownish-golden. You can flip them halfway through the cooking time if you feel like it, but they will brown on top even without flipping. (I know. I don't get it either.)

Serve with yogurt sauce or mayonnaise. I made a quick yogurt sauce with Greek yogurt, celery seed, dill, salt and pepper and lemon juice.

Asian Pasta Salad

Happy June!  It's not officially summer yet, but it definitely feels like it here in CT.

I'm a huge fan of noodles in any form: stir-fried, in soup, with creamy sauces, with pesto...you name it, I will most likely eat it.  Yesterday we had a potluck at work and I brought this cold noodle salad.  I wasn't sure what my co-workers would think of it since it's not your everyday pasta salad, but they really liked it!

I used linguine instead of bowtie pasta because that's all I had on hand- I just cut the linguine after cooking it.  In retrospect I would have broken the linguine before cooking.  I also included a little bit of minced garlic in the sauce cuz I had some on hand.  I chilled the noodles overnight and tossed in some spinach and field greens right before serving.  Also, I didn't add chicken, green onions or cilantro- as you can tell I was not well prepared for this recipe.  Luckily I had most of the ingredients on hand, but it's so versatile that you could probably make a lot of modifications with good results.

Thanks to Week of Menus!  It almost seems redundant for me to archive her recipes since I'm on her site so much.

Asian Bowtie Pasta
Serves 6-8

1 lb farfalle (bowtie) pasta (I used the mini farfalle)

1/3 cup canola, safflower or other mild tasting oil
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 red, yellow or orange bell peppers, cut julienne
1 cup of scallions, diced
2-3 cups of rotisserie chicken, cut into bite sized pieces (put more chicken if you want it meatier)
3 tablespoons roasted sesame seed
Pepper to taste
3 cups washed baby spinach
1/4 cup cilantro, OPTIONAL
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes, OPTIONAL

Boil and cook pasta according to directions. Make sure to salt the cooking water. Drain pasta and set aside. Return the pasta pot back to the stove. (You don't need to wash it.) Add the canola oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, and rice wine vinegar. Heat over low heat until the honey is dissolved. Remove from heat and toss in the pasta. Add the bell peppers, chicken, scallions, pepper, sesame seeds, cilantro (optional) and red pepper flakes (optional). Toss well to coat all the ingredients. Before serving, toss the pasta with the spinach, to keep the vibrant green as much as possible.

This can be chilled or served warm at room temperature.