When it comes to eating healthy, too often people think you are sacrificing flavor with your calories. These tasty Black Bean and Hemp Heart Falafels with Lemon Aioli are here to prove the doubters wrong! Read on for our delicious recipe and tips to add even a little something extra to your dinner table.
Falafel is a dish that originated in the Middle East, and is commonly deep fried. This recipe will hold up with a deep fryer no problem, but gives you the opportunity to pain fry your falafel as well, upping the ante on the health aspect even more. These falafels are made from black beans and hemp hearts, both a great source of protein, amino-acids and heart-healthy fats. Combined with our vegan take on a lemon aioli, this delicious dish is perfect for serving a wholesome meal that lacks nothing in flavor, but will be much healthier than non-homemade options.
If you are looking to add a little extra something special to your dish, combining a high-quality CBD oil with your aioli will add some potentially therapeutic benefits while taking away no deliciousness from this recipe. Cooking with CBD can be a great way to consume CBD, which has been thought to have anti-inflammatory properties as well as a natural alternative for stress relief.
Simply add a dropped full to your lemon aioli when combining ingredients and enjoy!
Ready 1 day of pre-soaking + 35 minutes
Makes 20 falafels
Ingredients
FALAFELS
- 1 cup dried black beans, submerge in a container with water covering 4 inches from the top, for 24 hours, drained and rinsed
- 3 tablespoons hemp hearts
- 1 shallot, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup mint, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup parsley, roughly chopped
- ½ cup of cilantro, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon of smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon of cumin
- ½ teaspoon of coriander
- ½ teaspoon of black pepper
- ½ teaspoon of baking powder
- 2 teaspoons of kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon chickpea / gf flour
- Grapeseed / camelina, vegetable or corn oil for frying
AIOLI
- 1 cup vegan mayonnaise
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 2 teaspoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 small lemon, juiced
Preparation
- Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend together, alternating pulsing, pausing, scraping down the sides, and repeating until you have a coarse consistency that is a little grainy, and not smooth like a puree.
- Heat a pot or a fryer with oil to 375F.
- Transfer mixture into a bowl if you’d like and with a small ice cream scoop, portion out little balls in your hand, roll them so they are tight, lay them out onto a parchment lined baking sheet or plate, and repeat until the dough is finished .
- Drop a few falafels into the oil and fry each side for 2 minutes. Be careful of overcrowding the pan so that the balls cook evenly and have space to crisp up. Scoop out the finished falafels onto a tray or plate lined with some paper towel to drain the excess oil, sprinkle some salt to taste, and repeat until all of them are fried.
- For the aioli, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and serve as a dipping sauce on the side. (Add your CBD oil to the bowl if you want those additional therapeutic properties!)
Tips
- This recipe requires you to use soaked dried black beans instead of the cooked ones that come in a can. You just cannot replicate the crispy texture that these falafels have with canned black beans.
- Why black beans? You could easily use the garbanzo bean like in traditional recipes but this elevated twist provides a meatier texture, more protein, fiber, B1 vitamins and magnesium (plus all those lovely essential fatty acids from the hemp hearts).
- I like to serve these falafels on a bed of greens with whatever crisp vegetables you have in the fridge, tossed in a hemp oil vinaigrette, topped with hemp hearts and eaten with a side of good store bought hummus!