HELLO HELLO!

Since I was very little I grew up in a home where Arabic food is cooked a lot. Since I can remember, in my parents' refrigerator there was always hummus, babaganoush (eggplant salad), olives in olive oil and Arabic bread to snack on whenever we wanted. .

In my grandparents' and uncles' house it was the same, family meals were mostly Arabic, I grew up with that tradition and when I got married I continued in the same way because in my husband's house they also have it.

We are a Jewish family, but both of Arab descent, which is why I love this type of food. But we return to the same thing, I almost always felt very heavy, because in reality this type of food is heavy. Normally the falafel I ate at my grandparents' house were fried and the eggplant was often fried too hahaha.

"Normally the falafel I ate at my grandparents' house were fried and the eggplant was often fried too hahaha"

But I have learned over the years to turn my favorite recipes into lighter dishes, I always look for a way to make them healthy for my well-being and that of my family.

This is my healthy version of chickpea and eggplant falafel in tahini sauce.

For the falafel you will need:

• 1 cup of chickpeas, hopefully they are natural ones, I soak these in water for 24 hours, so that they can be chopped well in the processor. If you are in a hurry you can use canned chickpeas.
• 1 chopped onion
• 1/2 cup parsley
• 1 garlic
• 1/2 cup almond or oat flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch of pepper
• Nutritional yeast to taste (optional)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Ground cumin to taste (optional)

We put all the ingredients through the processor, take out the mixture and start making the arepitas of the size you want.

For the eggplants you will only need 4 ingredients:

• Eggplants
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Olive oil
• Nutritional yeast

First you cut the eggplants in half, then we marinate them on the inside with the 4 ingredients mentioned and that's it.

Now, everything is ready to put it in the air fryer or oven. If you have an air fryer, you put it at 350 degrees for 12 minutes all together, if you are going to use the oven, you preheat it for 10 minutes at 180 degrees, and put everything in for 10 to 12 minutes.

For the sauce you will need:

 

• 2 teaspoons tahini paste
• 2 teaspoons of water
• 1 pinch of salt
• ½ garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

To the blender and that's it.

Additionally, I added a tablespoon of my homemade vegan mayonnaise, if you want to see the recipe I leave you the link below, when I combine these two sauces it is the same as a sauce similar to Caesar sauce! I mean yummy.