Tag Archives: falafel

Pita bread

03 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by in bread, kids, kids lunchbox ideas, pita, sandwiches, vegan, Vegetarian

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pita final-1

Like many other things in life, pita turned out to be easier than originally thought.

2 cups flour (I used 1 c bread and 1 c plain), plus plenty for kneading
1 cup warm water
2 tsp salt
2 tsp instant yeast
2 tbs good olive oil

1) Mix all the dry ingredients together, then drizzle the olive oil in. Mix again and add the warm water.

2) Mix first with a wooden spoon and then dump onto an incredibly clean counter and knead with your hands (and plenty of flour) until the dough is soft and not sticky. About 5 min or so.

3) Put a little oil in a bowl and put in the kneaded dough, then cover it tightly with a kitchen towel.

4) Warm the oven a little–for a minute or two. It shouldn’t be hot or able to cook anything. Turn the oven off and put the pita dough (covered) in the oven to rise for an hour or two.

5) After the dough has about doubled in size, gently punch down to release the air, knead a couple times and then divide into 8 pieces. Use plenty of flour throughout this process as the dough will still stick.

6) Roll out each piece about the size of pita you would like (not as thin as a tortilla) and then set aside, with a good sprinkling of flour and stack as you roll.

7) Heat the oven up pretty hot–about 430-450 degrees. Place the pitas (not touching) onto a baking sheet and place on the top shelf of the oven. When they puff up (after a few minutes), flip over to quickly brown the other side.

The pitas will cook quickly–in under 5 minutes. Once you take them out of the oven they will gradually lose air and settle down, but you will have some great pita pockets for falafel or other fillings.

risen dough-1

dough balls-1

pita 2-1

Hummus and garlic yogurt sauce in a falafel schwarma

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in healthy, Middle Eastern, quick and awesome, sandwiches, Sauces, Street food, vegan, Vegetarian

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falafel schwarma 2

I like the overpacked schwarma—loaded with pickled vegetables and lemony parsley; hummus and tahini sauce oozing all over your fingers. Messy, delicious street food for the hungry veghead. It’s not too hard to construct a falafel schwarma-ish sandwich at home using what you have to hand. For the bread I recommend NOT using store-bought pita. Make your own pita or make this quick flatbread recipe or this even quicker tortilla recipe.

The technique is simple. Load up the flatbread with some greens such as shredded lettuce or tabouleh. Add plenty of pickled turnip, radish or red cabbage. Spoon on some hummus and add as many falafel as you can eat. Other vegetables like chopped tomato, cucumber and shredded carrot go nicely. Top with some homemade tahini sauce (tahini thinned with olive oil and chopped tomato, salt and pepper) or homemade garlic yogurt sauce. If you are vegan, than go for the tahini sauce instead of the yogurt! Try and fold this monstrous vegetable behemoth over and eat it messy with your hands or use a knife and fork and eat like a dainty princess.

Homemade chickpea hummus
makes about 3 jars of hummus
3 cups cooked chickpeas
2 tbs tahini (or peanut butter)
3/4 cup to 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt (or more)
pepper to taste
water if needed

1) Add everything to a food processor (or blender, but a blender takes longer as you have to continually push everything down) except the olive oil and water, if using.
2) Pulse everything and add the olive oil in gradually until you have a smooth paste. Add a little water if it helps.
3) Adjust seasoning if need be. The hummus should be smooth and quite lemony. But salt and pepper are important too.
4) Use in wraps, sandwiches, as a veggie dip or for a falafel schwarma. Or serve on it’s own with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of paprika and some warm flatbread.

Garlic and mint yogurt sauce
makes about 1 cup
1 cup full fat greek yogurt
1 tbs mayonnaise
1 fat clove of garlic
1/2 – 1 tsp dill
1-2 fresh mint leaves, chopped finely
salt and black pepper

1) Pulverize the garlic in a mortar and pestle with a few grinds of salt.
2) Add the garlic/salt paste and the other ingredients to the yogurt and mix. Taste and adjust seasoning.
This is good on it’s own as a vegetable dip as well.

falafel schwarma 1