Sunday Picnic: Falafel Pitas With Salad.

So, this isn’t our usual Sunday Cookout, for a couple of reasons:

1. We cooked out last night with friends before the Alexandria fireworks display (and, as per usual, I was so busy chatting and carrying on that I neglected to take the first photo of our meal).
2. We were supposed to go out for a picnic in the park tonight – starring falafel pitas!

Well, No. 1 occurred flawlessly, and we had a delightful time as ever.  Notice, however, that in that second bullet point I said we were supposed to go to the park.  That changed this morning, when we realized that our Sunday schedule, much of which became work-related for LeeLee, had gotten a little jam-packed.

But not to worry!  Our picnic fare didn’t go to waste; we decided to simply picnic at home tonight instead!

I pulled out a falafel recipe I’ve had years and years and got to work. I can’t even remember where I got the recipe in the first place – in my big homemade cookbook of all types of printed-out recipes, it’s just copied into an email that I sent to myself in – get this – July 2003.  And let me tell you, from Day One it has been a winner!

Basically, all you do is this: Add two (drained) cans of garbanzo beans to a food processor, and top them with parsley, scallions, turmeric, ground cumin, garlic powder, salt, and a dash of cayenne.  Then pour a quarter-cup of water on top of the mixture and add the juice of one lemon.  Then process the heck out of everything until it’s smooth!  Then add a third of a cup of flour, stir it in well, and you’re ready to cook.

The thing I like most about this recipe – other than its ease of use – is that it calls for baking the falafel rather than frying, and in this day and age, I need every calorie-counting trick I can get!  So just simply spoon the falafel mixture out into little patties onto a baking sheet and bake them for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.  They’ll be perfectly crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside by the time they’re done – just how you want falafel to taste!

We tucked our falafel into halved pita bread, adding lettuce, cucumber, and a pinch of feta cheese to round out the sandwich.  Then I put together two side salads (one for each of us, y’know) with basic ingredients – lettuce, cherry tomatoes, black olives, croutons, cucumbers, and the like.  I couldn’t resist adding some potato chips to our plates just for a real picnic feel!

The final result was wonderful.  The falafel was fresh and flavorful, and the salad was a great accompaniment.  The halved pitas were just enough – they didn’t overstuff us, but they didn’t leave us hungry.  And we have quite a few falafel patties left for tomorrow’s lunch, which makes me quite happy!

So it may not have been the picnic in the park we’d planned, but it sure turned out well anyway.  I’ll take it!

:)