Refresh your week with this light and herby layered falafel and fresh cucumber tomato salad. While it’s traditional to fry falafel, we’ve decided to spend those calories elsewhere and added a layer of parsley and ricotta cheese. If there’s no food processor around, no problem – this is a great recipe for practicing those knife skills!
Falafel Pie
Ingredients
Falafel
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 large shallot, quartered
- 2 (15.5 oz) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- ½ cup cilantro leaves, lightly packed
- ½ cup parsley leaves, lightly packed
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
Ricotta
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup parsley leaves, lightly packed and roughly chopped
- ½ tsp salt
Salad
- 1 ½ cups roughly chopped cucumber
- 1 ½ cups grape tomatoes, halved
- ¼ cup roughly chopped red onion
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ cup feta cheese crumbles
- ½ cup sliced kalamata olives
Directions
1) Place garlic and shallot in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times until chopped. Scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula. Add chickpeas, herbs, lemon juice, olive oil, cumin, baking powder, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper to the food processor and run until no longer chunky, about 1 minute, scraping down the bowl as needed.
2) Sprinkle flour over the top and pulse a few times to incorporate. Scrape down sides of bowl and process 15-30 more seconds until smooth.
3) Combine all ricotta ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk until fully incorporated.
4) Line Suvie pan with lightly greased parchment paper. Add half of falafel mixture and use lightly greased fingers or spatula to pat into an even layer.
5) Spread ricotta mixture onto falafel in one even layer.
6) Add remaining falafel mixture on top of the ricotta layer and spread evenly to cover. Load pan into the bottom zone of Suvie. Input settings, and cook now or schedule.
Suvie Cook Settings
Bottom Zone: Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes (for Suvie 2.0, Bake at 400°F)
Top Zone: None
7) Towards end of the cook, combine cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onion in a medium bowl. Add olive oil and lemon juice and toss with a spatula to coat. Season salad to taste with salt and pepper.
8) After the cook, remove falafel pie from Suvie, transfer to a cutting board, and cut into six servings.
9) To serve, add one slice falafel pie to a plate and top with salad. Garnish with feta cheese and kalamata olives.
Nutrition
Nutritional Information per serving (6 servings per recipe): Calories 408, Total Fat 22g, Total Carbohydrates 35g, Total Sodium 1357mg, Total Protein 15g
