Tonight I attempted to make homemade falafel for the first time. My vegetarian cookbook had a tasty looking recipe and I happened to have all of the ingredients. I cut the recipe in half and followed it exactly, except for adding a little bit of lemon juice. This was the sad, sad result of my efforts:
Falafel mush. They completely fell apart! I’m not exactly sure what happened – did I use too much oil? Did the lemon juice make them too moist, causing them to disintegrate? *Sigh*
Batch #2 turned out slightly better. I used much less oil and coated the falafel with a bit of flour first before frying. They looked like they were supposed to and tasted alright, but they were too soft and mushy for my liking. On the bright side, I also made peppers stuffed with balsamic vegetables and goat cheese, which turned out to be quite delicious. Though I am happy to share my stuffed pepper recipe with you all, I regret to say that the falafel just didn’t cut it. If anyone happens to have a good recipe, please comment below to share it! I would love to find a recipe that does not require deep frying.
Bell Peppers Stuffed with Balsamic Vegetables and Goat Cheese
AKA the Silver Lining to an Epic Kitchen Failure
Ingredients:
2 bell peppers, halved
3-4 cups of mixed vegetables, chopped (I used half of one of the bell peppers, onions, zucchini, eggplant, and mushrooms)
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp (approximately) balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp dried basil
Pinch of pepper
Olive oil
2-3 tbsp goat cheese
Directions:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 400ºF. Rub the pepper halves with a bit of olive oil and season with some pepper.
2. Heat about 1 tsp of olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Saute the garlic and onions for a couple of minutes, until softened. Add the rest of the vegetables and saute for about 5 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar, basil, and pepper.
3. Spoon the vegetable mixture into the peppers. Bake, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle the peppers with goat cheese as soon as they come out of the oven. Ta-da! Falafel failure comeback.
Seriously, if someone has a good falafel recipe, please send it my way! :)
inspiring healthy living 
Too bad about the falafels. The second batch does look better and the stuffed peppers look great!
Ahh, I know. I’m still very bitter about the falafel incident.. but the peppers were tasty, so it helped make up for it! Thanks for stopping by :)
It seems like you prefer the stuffed peppers, though, I think the falafels look delicious too!
I love falafels. My other half is from Egypt originally, so we serve them often. I’ll give these a try.