Day Seven: Falafel with Hummus

Day seven of Operation: Expand Horizons offered my first ever vegan meal, and it was singularly delicious. Bon Appétit's Falafel with Hummus was easy, healthy-ish, and super good. The recipe calls for using purchased hummus, but come on! Hummus is easy to do yourself, and I've made it numerous times, so this time was no exception.

For the uninitiated, falafel is a Middle Eastern dish of fried chickpea patties, often served over rice or on pita bread with a drizzle of tahini sauce, which is made from ground sesame seeds. "Oh, wow, delicious," you sarcastically snort. Snort not until you've tried them!

I'd had falafel once before at a local Lebanese restaurant, and they were dry and bland. Knowing how ubiquitous this dish is among Middle Eastern cuisine, I thought that certainly there must be a better version. This recipe is it.

I ate a couple of the falafel patties plain, and made a wrap sandwich with 3 of them using a lavash wrap (a square flatbread that is like a combination of pita and tortilla), a schmear of hummus, cucumber, lettuce, and tomato. Perfect!

Since I was making this for my own lunch, I halved the falafel recipe and used the other half of the can of chickpeas for the hummus. Normally, I use a whole can of chickpeas for hummus. Here's how I make mine.

Hummus

Makes about 2 cups

1 - 15 oz. can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained, liquid reserved

2 small cloves garlic, peeled and trimmed of root ends, smashed

extra virgin olive oil

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

1-2 tbsp. tahini sauce (ground sesame seed paste), to taste

fresh lemon juice from half a lemon, to taste

1 tbsp. Italian (flat leaf) parsley

Place the drained chickpeas, about half of the reserved liquid, garlic cloves, parsley, and tahini in the bowl of a food processor. Drizzle with olive oil, squeeze the lemon half over, and sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh pepper. Process until smooth, scraping the bowl down with a rubber spatula halfway through. Make sure the garlic cloves have not remained whole. If the mixture seems too thick, add more of the reserved chickpea liquid. Taste and adjust seasoning with additional tahini, lemon juice, salt, or olive oil if desired.

Serve as a dip with fresh veggies and pita wedges.

Greek style chicken legs

Greek and Middle Eastern cuisines are among my favorites, right behind Mexican. There are a lot of similarities in the foods of Greece, Iran, Israel, Iraq, and the rest of the Mideast. The things I like best include hummus, tabbouleh, pita, gyros, and shish tawook.

If you're not familiar with shish tawook, find a good Middle Eastern restaurant and fix that. It's delicious- chunks of marinated and grilled chicken shmeared with a thick garlicky paste, usually served over rice or in a pita. You definitely won't be getting kissed for about two days after you eat it, but it's SO worth the breath. (Seriously- garlic will come not only from your mouth, but from your stomach and from your pores.)

Greek flavors are easily accomplished without a recipe. One of my favorites is a simple combo of garlic, oregano, and olive oil. I made some grilled chicken legs recently with these- just sprinkle the legs with garlic granules, dried oregano, kosher salt, and fresh pepper and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Refrigerate for at least an hour before grilling.

I often use garlic granules when grilling chicken or beef. It won't burn like fresh garlic will, and the taste stays a truer raw garlic flavor instead of the sweeter taste of cooked, which is not my favorite.

To accompany the chicken legs, I steam-microwaved a mixture of fresh veggies- bell pepper, onion, broccoli, asparagus, snap peas, and mushrooms. The trick to doing this is to microwave in stages. Tougher veggies like the broccoli and onions go in first; tender types like the bell pepper and mushrooms go in afterward so they don't overcook. My fancy microwave has a "Fresh Vegetables" button that makes it simple. You choose 1-3 cups and the timing is usually perfect.

I also made some white rice with slivered white onion added in at the last minute of cooking to keep a crisp, fresh oniony flavor that works well with the grilled chicken.

All in all, this is a quick, easy dinner that's full of flavor but not full of fat.