Falafel Burgers on Fresh Pita with Potato Wedges

Thursday, January 30

Falafel Burgers on Fresh Pita with Potato Wedges

Rating: 4.5

I had to rearrange some of the meal plans, and I needed something that wouldn’t give us a ton of leftovers, or at least ones that wouldn’t freeze well. I had already soaked and cooked chickpeas, so I decided falafel was the way to go. I have a bunch of recipes for baked falafel, but I remembered the one from The Vegan Table that makes burger-sized patties as opposed to the smaller ones, so I went with it. First, I made the sauce, and I have to be honest, I wasn’t crazy about it. The only yogurt I had on hand was the So Delicious brand, which is sweetened. I would normally use unsweetened for this kind of sauce, but I can’t find any. (Come on Whole Soy Co. get that factory going!) Also, my tahini had really solidified, so I had some trouble getting it to blend into the sauce. I ended up putting it in the mini food processor, and that got it smooth enough. After the recommended half hour of chilling to blend the flavors, it was pretty good. I still think it would have been better with unsweetened yogurt. Or, there’s always this tzatziki recipe, which is delicious, and very easy to make. When I made the burgers, my mixture seemed a bit too dry, so I reduced the amount of breadcrumbs a bit. I still had some trouble getting them to hold together. I ended up with 6 patties instead of the 8 or so the recipe says, but I was aiming for bigger burgers anyway. Everything was fine with them until I flipped them over halfway through cooking, at which point, they more or less fell apart. Not entirely, but mostly into big chunks. One or two of them held together, so we had those for dinner. The others will still be good when reheated; they’ll just be more like falafel bites instead of burgers. It all goes in a pita pocket anyway, so no worries. I've made these burgers before and haven't had this problem, so I'm not sure what went wrong. I went ahead and made another batch of pita bread, too. We still had a little bit left from the last batch, but I really wanted fresh. I’m not sure why, but for some reason this time, only one of them puffed up the way they’re supposed to, so I ended up with just one that had a good pocket. I think maybe I didn’t roll them out thinly enough. I made some potato wedges and a salad to go with the burgers, and even though it didn’t all turn out the way I’d expected, it all was a truly tasty dinner.