Healthy Baked Falafel Salad with Homemade Tzatziki

I love, love Greek food. Falafel is one of my favorite things- full of protein and packed with flavor. 

Tzatziki is delicious on most things- as a dip, on top of a salad, and on sandwiches and burgers. 

Below are lower calorie recipes for both- (of course, you could fry these falafel balls if you wanted.) The falafel can be served however you'd like- in GF pitas, as an appetizer with the tzatziki as a dip. You can even make the falafel into larger patties and bake them, using them like burger patties on sandwiches. Super versatile- we ate them on top of a salad greens with feta, chopped olives, cherry tomato chopped cucumber and lemon zest. We used the tzatziki as the dressing, with a dollop of hummus and just mixed it all together. SO satisfying!

Baked Falafel

 Ingredients.

2 12 oz. cans chickpeas- rinsed and drained
4-6 tablespoons organic oat flour

1 cup chopped onion

1 handful parsley finely chopped

1 handful cilantro, finely chopped

5 cloves garlic minced

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2-4 tablespoons oat flour (or any other flour you have on hand)

Process.

Preheat oven to 350.

Add all ingredients except chickpeas and flour in a food processor. 
Pulse until coarsely chopped.

Add chickpeas into food processor and stir to incorporate. 
Pulse until the chickpeas are rough chopped and uniform in size with the rest of the ingredients. 
Do not blend to the consistency of hummus! Stop when they are still coarsely chopped.

Feel the mixture- you want it to be sticky- like the consistency of cookie dough. 
If it seems really wet, fold in the oat flour in 2 tablespoon increments to make it a little drier. 

On a lined or greased baking sheet, place heaping tablespoon-sized balls of the falafel mixture on the sheets. Press lightly to partially flatten them.

Bake 25-30 minutes, until beginning to brown. 
Flip and bake another 20 minutes until golden brown.

As the falafel is baking, make the tzatziki. 

Tzatziki

Ingredients.

1 cup Greek Yogurt (I used 0%- but you can use whatever.)
Juice of 1/2 of a large lemon
1/3 cup cucumber, skin removed and minced (English cucumbers are best because their seeds are very small. if you use a regular cucumber, remove seeds.)
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dill- fresh if you have it- minced
(optional- a little fresh parsley if you have it leftover from the falafel, finely chopped.)
Salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together- taste and adjust flavor as you see necessary.  
Cover and chill- the longer it chills the better the flavor.

Enjoy!

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