Beastie Week: Red Curry Falafel with Basil-Carrot Raita
Ey yo what the falafel, you got to get up awful, early, to fool Mr. Furley
It’s been a long week of Beastie Boy recipes! I’ve really been enjoying it. I have one more for you all, a red curry falafel. I was inspired to make falafel with red curry as the seasoning because I have eaten red curry with chickpeas many times and the flavors mesh really well. I also had the idea because a couple falafel ingredients overlap with red curry ingredients. The falafel came out great, and served with a basil-carrot raita, each bite was perfection.
The raita ingredients.
The salad to go with the falafel included cucumber, tomato, lettuce, and green pepper. The secret ingredient was bean sprouts, because I thought they would match with the red curry.
Blend up the curry paste first. Ginger, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, cumin, coriander, and dried red chiles.
When the chickpeas go in, dont go overboard with the food processor. It’s nice to leave some texture in the falafel.
To be honest, the first time I fried these guys, they totally disintegrated in the oil. They just kept getting smaller and smaller! So I decided to add a little flour to the mix, then coated them in a slight dusting of flour before frying.
Finally with the flour they worked out.
Salad first.
Then the falafel and sauce.
Yum, so good! I really really liked this sandwich.  The textures were perfect and the yogurt balanced nicely with the spicy falafel.  The basil was a real surprise in the raita sauce, and I think I am going to try mixing lots of new herbs with yogurt in the future!
Oh Word?  This is their most food-reference heavy song of all time!
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Red Curry Falafel
Ingredients
Carrot Basil Raita
- 1 cup strained yogurt
- 3 carrots shredded
- 1 lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic grated
- 10 leaves basil chopped
salad
- cucumber
- tomato
- green pepper
- lettuce
- bean sprouts
falafel
- 3 shallots
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 inches ginger
- 20 dried red chiles
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 2 tablespoons jarred lemongrass
- 3 cups dried chickpeas soaked overnight
- 3 tablespoons flour
- oil for frying
Sandwich
- pita
Instructions
- Mix the raita ingredients and chill until ready to use
- Mix the salad ingredients and chill until ready to use
- Pulse the shallot, garlic, ginger, chiles, cumin, coriander, and lemongrass in a food processor. Add in the chickpeas and continue to pulse. Once everything is broken down to a small gravel like constancy, add the mixture to a bowl and stir in the flour.
- Bring oil to 350 and make balls of the chickpea mixture. Fry to brown on all sides. Remove from the oil and allow to dry on a rack. Build the sandwiches in the pita with the salad, falafel, and raita on top.
I swear it wasn’t me in Bear Magazine…
hahaha
The falafel balls look tasty 🙂
Can u use canned chickpeas?
Canned chickpeas arent great for falafel because it makes them more creamy instead of textural the way they are supposed to be