Writing about the Springtime garden and kitchen shouldn’t be
all that hard. There is an abundance of inspiring material close at hand …
Watching an old hand like
Cabel and fresh new garden faces hustle like busy bees in and out of the green
house hauling wooden flats of tender plants into the cool air
Gathering a fragrant
armful of cilantro and spinach for a batch of raw garbanzo falafel…ohhh, you
want this in your supper table
The simple pleasure of
being in the company of Catherine’s ranunculus
Kiddo (and adult)
fascination with the new worm bin
Faithful Jim, soaking
up the warm sun, silhouetted in apple blossoms going about the task of
delivering the compost.
The wonders never cease during a regular walk on a regular Innisfree
morning. I hope that you may find some time in your week to make a quick stop by
this new Vegucation blog and find or share some inspiration of your own. There
will be recipes each week celebrating the flavors of the seasonal produce and
herbs you find in your box on delivery day. Isn’t delivery day the best day of
the week? We should all take a small moment to celebrate the food we are so
lucky to eat and the wise, gentle hands that help to grow it. May this space be
a place for it.
Cilantro Scented Raw Garbanzo Bean and Spinach Falafel
This recipe is no slouch and kind of blew my mind when I saw
my friend Ruth making it in my kitchen. When she uncovered this big bowl of
coarsely chopped and obviously uncooked chickpeas what I though was, there is no way she read that recipe
correctly. Sometimes it is such a joy to be wrong. As luck would have it I
have been on the hunt for a truly wonderful, healthy falafel recipe for a
while, because in my hands falafel tends to go one way or another. Pasty and
starchy tasting or greasy. Yuck. My family’s days of substandard falafel are
over. This recipe captures that good
grainy, earthy quality that is so particular to chickpeas, finds a good home
for a few extra handfuls of greens and does all that while being effortlessly
vegan and gluten-free. Serve these yummy
little patties over rice or a crisp green salad or some orzo tossed with fresh
dill, garlic, a good squeeze of lemon juice and a healthy slug of olive oil. Or
just dip them in yogurt alongside carrot sticks and pita bread. Thank you to Ruth
and her Israeli relatives for the inspiration.
Ingredients
3 cups of dried garbanzo beans picked over and soaked
overnight in plenty of cold salted water.
4 cups of clean, loosely packed spinach
Fresh cilantro (I used a good handful of stems and leaves)
3 cloves of garlic
1 big, heaped tablespoon of tahini (or any other kind of nut
butter you like)
the juice of 1 big lemon
salt and pepper to taste
Drain the garbanzo beans and set aside.
Buzz all of the spinach cilantro and garlic in a food
processor or blender until everything is combined into a vibrantly emerald pulp,
chunky is not a problem.
Add the garbanzos, tahini and lemon juice to the garlicky
spinach and cilantro in two batches and pulse lightly until the beans are just
fully combined with the veggies.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Form them into patties and fry them in a tablespoon or so of
olive oil over generous heat for about three or four minutes per side or until
crisply golden and deeply fragrant.
Done.
Now you can eat your raw, vegan, gluten-free chickpea
patties for supper.
