Do you like Falafel? I love it!! So imagine how happy I was when this next recipe turned just right! One taste was enough for me to understand that what it’s missing is a good fresh pita with chopped salad and tahini sauce, just perfect.
Growing up in a place where falafel can be found anywhere and having a big variety of it, obviously resulted in me just loving this dish.
Traditionally falafel is made of chickpeas and delicious spices and I love it because it’s such a great and easy meal. Once you got the falafel patties all you need is to stuff them in a pita with salads and there you have it – lunch! (or dinner)
Over the years I’ve seen people react differently to falafel. Some will love it, some will love it but get stomachaches from it (the chickpeas mostly), some even hate it (how is that possible?), but this version of completely gluten free, vegetarian falafel blew me away.
It started with me thinking what to make for hubby. At first I planned on making soy “meatballs” but then I found out I have no soy, so next, I opened the fridge, and what do I see? brown rice! ta-daaa…I knew what I was going to make!
I made the shape by using the kitchen gadget my dear father in law gave me after we moved to Canada. It’s a falafel scoop (click on the text in bold) words to see what it is) and it shapes the mix into balls, so it looked really authentic.
These Baked Brown Rice And Vegetable Falafel Patties (or balls) are great on their own and also go really good served in you favorite sauce (meatball style). You can also freeze them after they’re ready and use when you need to. Really a treat and so easy and healthy.
- 1 Cup Cooked Brown Rice
- ½ Red Bell Pepper
- 1 Carrot
- ¼ Small Onion
- 1 Celery Stick (no leaves)
- Small Bunch of Fresh Cilantro (about ¼ Cup packed sprigs)
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Egg
- 8 Tbsp Cornmeal
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Garlic Powder
- ¼ tsp Ground Cumin
- Ground Black Pepper
- Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and layer baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Put the rice, pepper, carrot, onion and celery in a food processor and blend well until finely chopped.
- Remove the mix from the food processor to a mixing bowl and add the egg, olive oil and spices and mix well until evenly combined.
- Add in the cornmeal and mix together. Depending on the type of cornmeal, you might need to use more or less of it, 1 Tbsp give or take, you just want the mix to be good enough (and no veggie juices) for shaping and placing on the baking sheet.
- Using a teaspoon scoop one teaspoon at a time and place on a parchment paper layered baking sheet. You can also try and give it a little ball shape.
- Bake in 375F (190C) for 15-20 minutes.
