Sweet potato falafels and quinoa tabbouleh

 Dinner is served! I've been almost deliriously happy to be puttering away in my mom's lovely kitchen after my travels. The first week has seen a couple of main dishes, lots of healthy sweet treats and breakfast aweomeness. After the ashram diet I've put on a few kilos already, but boy has it been worth it :D

The Finnish summer decided to play its trump card and drop the temperatures below 10 degrees and accompany the freeze with rain and wind. Thanks! But I don't really mind, Finland is still Finland: the air is clear and clean which makes a change after the dusty Kathmandu and everything is super green and lush after the rains and the wonderful spell of warm summer weather that just conveniently ended before my arrival. Any my mom's excited that she doesn't have to do the cooking, for once!

So, let's get to it, shall we? This time I have a main dish for you. Or actually two, combined into one delicious meal. These recipe is from one of my favourite blogs, Feelgood Kitchen. And even though the blog is in Finnish, fear not, English speakers! I have translated them for you, so that you can enjoy recreating the yumminess, if you so choose.

Without further ado: sweet potato falafels and a fresh, lovely gluten free alternative for the middle eastern staple, tabbouleh. The falafels were a bit on the dry side for my liking, so next time I'd add some more moisture to the mix. The baking time was also a little longish for my oven, so I recommend keeping an eye on the things while they're baking away, so that they don't get even drier or burn. The original recipes for both the falafels and tabbouleh are doubled, and my ratio of sweet potato / chickpea might have also been a bit off, but the falafels were good anyway, especially with the light and fresh tabbouleh.

The tahini sauce might have worked better with a lighter tahini; mine was an organic and quite flavourful. I also can't take quite as much raw garlic as was called for in the recipe and only used one clove. The sauce turned quite pungent, so I took the liberty of softening it a bit with maple syrup. I also served yoghurt as a second sauce, and I think it was a very welcome addition.

Sweet potato falafels

(original recipe here, in Finnish)

makes ca. 20 small falafels

smallish sweet potato (ca. 300-400 g)

1 can chickpeas / 3 dl soaked and cooked ones

1,5 tbsp tahini

2 cloves of garlic

1 onion

0,5 dl chickpea flour

couple of handfuls of fresh coriander

1,5 tsp cumin

0,5 tsp chili powder

a fair amount of salt

black pepper

on the surface: olive olil & sesame seeds

Prepare the sweet potato in the microwave oven: wash it, stab it a couple of times with a fork and wrap in slightly damp kitchen roll. Stick in the microwave on a microwave proof plate, nuke for 3 min. Flip the sweet potato around, nuke another 3 min until soft. If you don't have a microwave, chop the sweetie , drizzle with olive oil and roast in 200 degrees until soft. Let the sweet potato cool down a bit.

Add all inredients (not the chickpea flour!) in a food processor and blend into a doughy paste (it doesn't have to be smooth). You can also use a stand mixer. Check the flavour and add spices, if needed. Mix the chickpea flour to the dough in the end.

Heat the oven till 225 degrees. Roll the dough into small balls with moist hands, set on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds, if you'd like. Bake for 35 minutes (too much in my oven) or until the falafels are a nice golden colour.

Lemon tahini sauce

1 dl tahini

0,75 dl water

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

1 clove of garlic, crushed

a sprinkle of salt and black pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients. Add water until the consistency is to your liking. The sauce will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.

Quinoa tabbouleh

(original recipe here, in Finnish)

2 dl cooked quinoa 

1/2 small cucumber

2 tomatoes

1/2 bell pepper

a small handful of fresh parsley

a small handful of fresh mint and coriander

0,5 tsp salt

0,25 tsp cinnamon (I added more as I'm a cinnamon junkie)

1,5 tbsp olive oil

1,5 tbsp lemon juice

Dice the veggies and chop the herbs. Let the tomatoes sit on a couple of sheets of kitchen roll for a bit so that they don't make the tabbouleh soggy. Mix quinoa with spices, olive oil and lemon juice. (Pro tip! I like to cook my quinoa with lemon juice and soy sauce/tamari. If you follow my lead, then you can reduce the amount of lemon juice in the recipe. Try what suits your taste buds the best!) Add diced veggies and chopped herbs. Mix and enjoy!

The tabbouleh was even more delicious the next day, as the cinnamon popped up way more then. Super omnom!