Whew…May was a month (well, April leading into May). I missed you, my reader friends! I’m so glad to be back.

I live in the boonies. On my property are horses, chickens, a stupid sweet goat, dogs, a lizard, fish, children, and my husband. Told ya, the boonies! My town has 3.5 stoplights. I say 3.5 because one only works when someone wants to cross the highway. 2 don’t really count because they are for trucks getting on and off the interstate at a truck stop.

If I crave a specific food, I can’t just go to a local restaurant or market. In fact, I can’t tell you one single place within a 45 min drive that has falafel.

What is falafel? Basically, it is a chickpea cake that is vegan by nature. This one does have a whopping 2 Tablespoons of flour across 8 patties, so not gluten-free. I’m not adept at GF conversions, but I’m guessing 2 Tablespoons of GF flour would work.

Is this the very best falafel I’ve ever eaten? No. I’ve eaten falafel that was amazing. It was made by immigrants with all fresh ingredients. This falafel is made from mostly pantry staples. It took 10 min. It was proclaimed “pretty good” by my grown daughter headed off to culinary school in the fall. It also filled my cravings and is a good protein source. I count that as win-win-win.

I say “mostly” because I had fresh lemon and garlic on hand. However, I don’t see any reason you can’t sub in dried lemon crystals and garlic powder. I’m the self-proclaimed Queen of Cook What You Have.

Pantry Falafel

Throw all of the following into your food processor:

1 can drained and rinsed chickpeas (I use low sodium)

2 cloves of fresh garlic

The juice of ½ lemon

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoons AP flour

½ Tablespoon onion powder

2 Tablespoons dried parsley flakes

1/3 teaspoon dried dill

• Pulse the food processor until everything is combined to look dirty chunky sand.
• Make 8 patties (my wimpy hand made 8, but you can make 4). Mine weren’t pretty.
• Pan fry the patties in a non-stick skillet on medium-high for about 2-3 minutes on each side. I used about 1 Tablespoon of grape seed oil in my pan because I simply like that sizzle sound.