So if you’ve been following my culinary journey, you might’ve noticed that I purchased pita bread from Falafel Yo! To maximize the shipping fee, I decided to order more food to go along with it (LOL so I think I ended up spending waay more than what I saved from the shipping fee). One of those purchase was this Raw Falafel Mix for PHP 349 (good for ~15-20 balls). Personally, I’ve never tried falafel (ground chickpeas) before, but I figured it might be interesting to try cooking and seemed pretty healthy. On top of this, I also purchased a load of dips (tahini, eggplant tahini, and hummus!), but that’s a story for another day.

VERDICT: NOT MY TYPE BUT COULD BE YOURS

Packaging

Ohman, packaging leaves a lot to be desired. It’s all placed in these plastic containers with ZERO labels. Not that big of a deal for the raw falafel mix and the pita bread, because it’s pretty clear what those are… But for the dips, I had to taste it first to check which ones were they!

Overall, not asking for fancy packaging, but a clear label is always helpful – which would tell us not just what food item is this, but also shelf life and cooking instructions (if any)

 

Cooking Instructions

It’s actually relatively easy to cook, but there are certain things to be aware of – which I’ll list down below.

To cook the mix, you simply have to do the following (added instructions based on my experience, as the original instructions were too straightforward LOL):

1. Place the raw falafel mix in the refrigerator for at least 30minutes before you start forming. This will allow the falafel mix to retain its shape, otherwise, the chickpeas have a tendency of breaking apart.

2. Form mixture into falafel balls about 2″ in diameter, and squeeze to compact. I made around 19 balls (sayang, I wanted to make 20!) If they still won’t shape properly and you aren’t vegan, you can crack and whisk an egg, then use this egg coating to make the falafel mixture more sticky to shape better

 

3. Transfer to chill in the refrigerator for 30 mins before frying

4. In a pot, heat canola oil. Don’t overcrowd with falafel balls, and make sure you gently lower the balls into the pot so they don’t break apart.

5. Fry falafel balls until golden brown and crispy

 

 

It sounds easy right? Wrong! My falafel mix kept breaking apart, so I kept googling and bugging Falafel Yo for tips on how to make it stick together (hence the detailed instructions above). In the end, I ended up with 10 balls that retained its original ball shape, and the rest, I decided to use as spaghetti bits for additional flavor so that it isn’t wasted.

 

Taste

It’s definitely interesting. I used the falafel mix to make falafel ball toppings for my spaghetti, and thought it added a nice texture and crunch to the dish. I don’t think anyone would ever mistake these for meatballs, but I did like the crunch and the interesting flavor. Will I crave for it? Likely not. I’m a carnivore through and through, but this was a good taste experiment nevertheless. My sister, who’s loads healthier than me, really liked it. So I think it definitely depends on a person’s taste – try it and see, I suppose?