Falafel Crunch & Au revoir Vegenaise

The first time I had falafel was on a pita at Pita Pit complete with hummus and loaded with veggies. I was highly impressed. Little did I know that I would be making these Egyptian wonders in my own kitchen years later.

I love Isa's recipe (pg 121) because 1) she encouraged making them flat rather than in balls for a more consistent bake and 2) she made me feel accepted for my love of doubling up on chickpeas. (Both hummus and falafel are made of chickpeas/garbanzo beans.)

Last night, I chose to ditch the pita and have my falafel over salad with a side of jalapeno-cilantro hummus (pg 137 & 139). Holy Hannah, if you haven't experimented with jalapenos in hummus, you are missing out. It seemed vaguely like jalapeno poppers, but you have to remember that it has been 6+ years since having them. I doubled the batch of falafel & there was left over hummus, so Steven and I took them in our lunches as wraps. This evening Steven declared it to be "the perfect lunch." I foresee many more evenings of falafel making in my future.

While I was on a "lunch" kick, I figured I would try the Cashew Miso Mayo (pg 270). Steven has been looking for a lower calorie alternative to Vegenaise. Will he really be able to give up Vegenaise? After sampling some on a Tofurkey sandwich (which, yes, he put hot sauce on), he decided that although it isn't comparable to Vegenaise, he can definitely use it as a sandwich spread. That's terrific considering it has 1/3 the amount of calories as Vegenaise!

All in all, last night was a fun cooking/sampling experience.