Today I was in the mood for some more Caribbean food, well Caribbean inspired food should I say. I had an idea to do something with chickpeas, so I made some jerk falafel, which I served alongside homemade flatbread, fried plantain and jerk sweet potatoes fries, which really reminded me of the ones from Turtle Bay (not long left until it’s open again now!). The recipe was mostly just a case of blitzing everything in the food processor, frying and then leaving them to finish cooking in the oven. The falafel was such a quick after work meal and it was a nice change to make them instead of picking them up from the shops.
Ingredients
- 400g tinned chickpeas
- ½ red onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- ½ scotch bonnet pepper
- 2 tbsp. plain flour
- 1 tsp. jerk seasoning paste
- 1 tsp. jerk seasoning powder
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp. oil for frying
- Pre heat your oven to gas mark 5/180 degrees Celsius.
- Drain and wash your chickpeas, then pat them dry. It is important for your chickpeas to be dry to avoid the falafel mix being too wet.
- Peel and roughly chop your onion, garlic and scotch bonnet. Make sure to remove the seeds of the chilli if you do not want your falafel too spicy.
- Place your onion, garlic and scotch bonnet into a food processor and blend until fine.
- Add your chickpeas, flour and seasoning to the mix and blend until almost smooth. You want to ensure there is still some texture.
- Once mixed, shape your falafel into balls of desired shape.
- In a non-stick pan, heat up your oil of choice on a medium heat and once hot, place in your falafels.
- Cook on each side until golden brown, which will take around 3 minutes.
- Place your falafels on top a baking tray and place in your preheated oven for around 10 minutes.
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