Falafel Salad

Ingredients

For the Salad

• 1 cos lettuce hearts, roughly torn
• 1 peeled cucumber, chopped
• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• ½ red onion, sliced
• 1 red capsicum, chopped 4 radishes, sliced
• ½ celery heart, sliced
• ¼ bunch Parsley, leaves picked
• ¼ bunch mint, leaves picked
• 1/3 bunch coriander, leaves picked
• Crisp pita chips
• 80g olives

For the Dressing

• 1 tsp sumac
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1-2 lemon zest and juice
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

          For the Labne

• 1 cup drained Greek style yogurt
• 1-2 cloves crushed garlic
• Salt

 For the Falafels

• 200g chickpeas soaked in water overnight
• 1 bunch mint, washed and picked
• 1 bunch coriander, washed and chopped
• ½ bunch parsley, washed
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove
• 1-2 long red chillies chopped
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp ground coriander sesame seeds for coating
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying
  
  

Method

For the Falafels

Drain the soaked chickpeas and wash them well. Add all the other ingredients, except sesame seeds and blend until you have a smooth mix. Shape into rounds and coat with sesame seeds. Shallow fry until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towel.

For the Salad

For the crisp pita bread (tear bread and sprinkle with a little olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, chilli powder and salt and bake in the oven until crisp – store in airtight container) Place all ingredients into a bowl and lightly toss with sumac dressing. Break open and scatter falafels and then dot with labne. Place a few pieces of crisp pita amongst the salad. 

*This is a hearty salad and the falafels are packed with protein. A great vegetarian salad, and vegan if you omit the labne.