Meatless Tuesday?

Baked Falafel

Lettuce, Tomato, Tahini Sauce

Recipe courtesy of ChowVegan 

My cooking schedule got a bit thrown off this week, so we ended up delaying our Meatless Monday into a Meatless Tuesday-into-Wednesday.  Oh well, no big concern, especially since we had falafel *again* this week.  Don't get me wrong - I am not complaining by any stretch of the imagination.  I would eat falafel every night, I absolutely love the stuff.  However, I think Stephanie might not be too happy (although she is a confirmed falafel freak, she did the happy dance when I told her I was going to make it again this week.)

When I was thinking about making falafel, I wanted to avoid the traditional method of preparing it, which is deep-frying.  Now, I make no bones about my love of all things deep-fried, but I was looking for a baked version for 2 reasons:  eating a deep-fried meal negates the whole point of a Meatless Monday, and I hate deep-frying inside my home.  I perused a number of recipes, and settled on this one - even more non-traditional since it calls for canned beans.  The only change I made to it was I didn't use as much onion, and I jacked up the oven temperature to 450, so they formed a crispy crust.

My only issue is the pita bread - I'm in need of a good Middle Eastern market to get quality pita, since Wegmans brand just isn't up to snuff.  Throw the falafel in a good pita with some shredded lettuce, diced tomato and a heaping spoonful of tahini sauce, and I (and Stephanie) are happy people.