Beetroot Falafel Salad

This one is a prep the day before kinda recipe. Your future self will thank you for that previous mahi! Noemie beetroot falafel salad looks like a million dollars, but won’t break the bank. Utilising dried chickpeas as a protein takes a little extra time and effort, but is so, so much cheaper than buying canned from the supermarket. Roast all your veggies at once to save some time and power bill too!

For the falafel:

Ingredients: 

1 cup dried chickpeas

2 medium beetroots

2 large handful of parsley

1 handful of mint (or other herb of choice)

1 lemon

4 cloves garlic

salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees. Chop your beetroot in small cubes, place in a baking dish with some olive oil, salt and pepper and bake until tender (about 20 to 30 minutes). Allow to cool.
2. In a bowl or container, place 1 cup of chickpeas and cover with cold water. The chickpeas will double in size so you want a container large enough to avoid a chickpea eruption! Leave in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours.
3. Once the chickpeas are ready, drain and rinse them. Add them to a food processor and blitz until a sandy texture forms, this may take about 2 minutes, making sure to scrape down the sides of the blender bowl as you go.
4. In the blender, add your herbs, garlic, juice of 1 lemon and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Blitz until herbs are finely chopped then add to the chickpea mixture.
5. Now place your roasted beetroots in the blender and blitz until very fine, almost pasty and add to the other ingredients.
6. Mix everything together till well combined.
7. Place a pan over low to medium heat with a splash of oil.
8. Shape your falafel by squeezing a ping pong ball size of the mixture in your hands and form a wee patty. It will feel like the mixture will crumble, but it holds together as it cooks. If your mixture doesn't hold, add a couple of tablespoons of chickpea flour (or whichever flour you have) in the mixture.
9. Fry until golden on both sides.

For the salad:

3 carrots

2 parsnips

olive oil

salt and pepper

rocket

dukka (or some toasted cumin and coriander seeds, salt)

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees
2. Chop your carrots and parsnips as desired, place in a baking dish with some olive oil, salt and pepper and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.
3. Leave to cool. 
4. In a bowl, mix a couple of tablespoons of olive oil with a tablespoon of dukka (or spice mix). Add the rocket and cool roasted veggies and toss to cover.
5. In the bottom of a bowl, generously smear some hummus, and top with salad.
6. Add your falafel on top, squeeze some lemon and top with choice of feta, herby yogurt sauce, toasted almonds, and fresh herbs.