the veggie-hating husband's homemade falafel and hummus

The good news: I worked 52 hours last week. The bad news: I worked 52 hours last week. While it’s rewarding on many levels, I miss everyone in blogland! By the time I get home and eat dinner it’s hard to put together a coherent post that’s good enough to publish. Even plans to write some short posts haven’t panned out like I had hoped.

I’m working on it, though, and I appreciate everyone’s patience and support. If you have ideas for topics you’d like me to write about or questions for me, leave me a comment, shoot me an email, tell me on Twitter, or post it on Facebook.

Honestly, it helps me focus on writing content instead of trying to think of ideas. This whole “work” thing makes my brain tired!

The first few days of work I still made dinner when I got home. My husband’s complaint was that he didn’t really know what we had in the pantry or where I put things; considering that I did 99% of the food shopping, it was valid. We talked a bit about what we had and needed, and when I got home from work last week, he had a veritable feast prepared for us!

He bought whole wheat pita bread and some olives, mixed up some lemon-tahini dressing, and made both falafel and lima bean hummus from scratch. She Who Fears Frying (me) was duly impressed.

It’s not that the Veggie-Hating Husband can’t cook, it’s that he has simple tastes (tacos-spaghetti-pizza) and often works too much to want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Since we’ve switched roles, he’s stepping up. He even made cookies and brownies yesterday!

The falafel was delicious. I had leftovers for lunch the next day and was excited for it. He used chickpeas that I had soaked, cooked, and frozen, then combined elements of a few recipes he looked up. They turned out really well — even though I didn’t take very good photos of them.

Ironically, the Veggie-Hating Husband has always loved lima beans. When he said he wanted to make lima bean hummus, I asked where he got the idea.

“From your Vegetarian Times magazine that came in the mail today. It sounded really good.”

When he started reading my cooking magazines I do not know, but I am not complaining!

The lima beans are blended with spices and fresh mint making it colorful and refreshing. It would be a nice dip for crudites, or as we had it, with pita bread. We also added some to our falafel.

I was hungry and moving fast, so the pictures don’t really do justice to this dinner. We stuffed pita halves with lettuce from the CSA, falafel, tomato and onion, lemon-tahini dressing, and the lima bean hummus. Served with some salty olives it was a great way to end a long week of work.

The bummer is that since he cooked I had to do the dishes. I don’t remember it being quite so equitable when I was the one cooking…

Who does the cooking at your house? And who does the dishes?

Homemade Falafel

Yields 8-10 falafels, about 3 servings

Ingredients:

• 16 ounces (1 can rinsed and drained) cooked chickpeas
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds or 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• pinch of kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Place chickpeas and onion in the bowl of a food processor or blender and pulse to break them up.
2. Add rest of ingredients and pulse to a uniform consistency. Pinch a small amount together; it should stick together and be a thick paste.
3. In a medium pan heat about 2 inches of olive or vegetable oil to 350F.
4. Form chickpea paste into 8-10 small balls of approximately uniform size. Flatten slightly.
5. Fry in hot oil for about 2 minutes total, turning halfway, until browned. Drain on paper towels. Cool slightly before serving.

Lima Bean Hummus

Adapted from Vegetarian Times September 2010

Ingredients:

• 1 12-ounce package frozen baby lima beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Directions:

1. Bring 1/2 cup water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add lima beans. Cook for 6 minutes, cover, remove from heat, and let stand 5 minutes. Drain and rinse.
2. Place lima beans, oil, lime juice, and garlic in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Add mint and pulse for about 30 seconds.
3. Garnish with diced tomato and onion and lime juice if desired.

Tagged as: beans, chickpeas, dairy-free