Lust de falafel

When TequilaTanya and I lived in Paris, *the* place to get a cheap, amazing falafel with a bajillion toppings was in the Hassidic quarter at L'as de Falafel, or "The Ace of Falafel."

TequilaT is half Arab, and I've lived in the Middle East. We have high falafel standards.

While these Baked Falafel patties over at ChowVegan lack that thick outer crunch of deep fried balls of garbanzo goodness, they are damn good.

After a failed lentil burger incident a few months ago because the ingredients didn’t bind well, I was extra cautious and threw in an “egg”(1 tbsp ground flax to 3 tbsp water). For double the recipe, I used about 3/4 of the “egg”.

The falafel turned out just fine in the over, but GREAT in the pan with a little oil – not fried, just browned on low-med flame.

I also used dried garbanzos that I cooked til soft (read: easy to mash with a masher, no need for a food processor). They taste a lot better than their canned counterpart.

Fattoush is a really good (vegan!) accompaniment. Epicentre has a good, straightforward recipe.