[HadassahSukkot]

Originally Posted by Beauty4Ashes

Kebab and Falafel

Kebab is actually pretty easy. All that it is is ground meat with a bunch of spices molded into a stick about the size of your thumb in width and maybe 5-6" in length. We ate kebab last night.

We bought Australian lamb chops (they tend to be more tender and less fatty than American lamb. It's also known as spring lamb) and some london broil meat and ground the two together. You need to add tons of all spice, maybe a teaspoon or two and maybe 1 teaspoon of salt and some black pepper to the meat after it's ground. I think that dh also ground up one medium onion with the meat, and about 1/2 a cup of fresh parsley. You'll need some kind of a skewer to mold the meat around. We have one of those grills that you set up on top of your stove top. He brushed it with some olive oil so the meat wouldn't stick. With kebab, you want to cook it quickly, I think it only took 10 minutes total.

For falafel, we make enough for 6-7 meals and freeze it. I'm going off the top of my head here. You will need to soak 2 cups of dry chickpeas and 2 cups of dry fava beans over night. Throw the beans in the grinder a handful at a time. Add to the grinder corriander seeds, maybe 1/2 cup, 1 cup of fresh parsley chopped, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 medium onion, a handful of red pepper, and I think that's about it. You will need to grind the whole thing together at least twice, maybe even 3x. After grinding it, add salt and pepper and mix the whole thing with your hands. I'm not sure if you'll need to add an egg or not. When you go to make the falafel, roll it into balls and fry it in a deep fat fryer. Chop some lettuce and tomatoes and slices of pickles. The sauce is made with 1-2 cups of plain yogurt and 2-3 tbsp. of tahini (sesame seed paste). Eat it in a pita bread.

I wondered if there is any alternative for the fava beans? Due to their nature I am worried about using them since I have thyroid issues and my dad (who I share a lot of food tendencies with) is allergic to them... I don't want to tempt fate.

I had not heard of grinding them together. That probably explains why all attempts at making this have been a total failure before.