This week, I came to the Peace, Love, and Raw Café not at my usual Wednesday slot, but on Friday, the afternoon of Valentines day. Upon arriving, I saw celery, parsley, a huge tub of chick peas, sunflower seeds, and a myriad of spices laying out on the working tables.
Sprouted Chick Peas
The work station
I cut all the stems off, leaving only the leaves
“We’re making Falafel!” Nicole said. I was actually super excited. I had been wanting to try cooking falafel at home, but here, where all the ingredients were already laid out was even better.
First, I clipped celery and parsley.
Me in action
“The stems get really chewy and tough in the falafel, so we just get rid of as much as we can and take the leaves,” explained Nicole. After 30 minutes or so, I had a nice looking bunch of parsley and celery leaves sitting in a bowl below me.
Next, I cut up onions. Wow, what an experience. Let me say something first though: It was Valentines day, I was single, there had been a lot of chocolate I had willed myself away from (trying to stay healthy), and my plans for later included an all-girls movie marathon and a lot of pizza. I was feeling rather down -not to mention, in need of a good cry. So standing there, looking at the 6 onions I was about to cut up, it didn’t dawn on me that they were about to give me exactly what I needed. Halfway through cutting the first one, I began to feel the sting. Then my eyes started watering. But on that particular, somewhat depressing of a day, I welcomed the tears. By the time I was on the sixth, tears were running rampant on my face, mascara was trickling down, and I just kept feeling better and better.
Once that was over, I sliced up the cloves of garlic. Then, I helped Candice, one of the other workers, weigh, mix, and blend the ingredients. I weighed out the chickpeas, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, onions, garlic. We blended that mix and then added in the spices: cumin, coriander, and some olive oil. We deposited the “falafel dough” into a big bowl. The dough looked lumpy, with little unblended parsley leaves sticking out -kind of like vomit, if I’m being completely honest. But the lemony, spice-filled aroma was intoxicating!
Falafel Dough
Weighing and Blending ingredients
Candice continued making more batches of the falafel dough (6 more), while I began scooping up little balls of falafel with my scooper and depositing them on a dehydrating sheet. The thing that kept coming to my mind was: THESE ARE THE CUTEST THINGS EVER!!!!! Right as I was thinking this, Candice goes, “Aren’t they so cute?” So yes, not only are falafel balls super cute, but, I also really like the people that I work with.
The cutest little falafel patties!
Balls on the left, patties at the right
I was able to fit 16 falafel balls onto one sheet in rows of 4 by 4. Then, Nicole showed me how to smush them down a little bit into more a patty shape so they would dehydrate more evenly. I continued to do that for about an hour.
Going into the dehydrator
Internship Time: 1.5 hour, Write-Up time: .5 Hour
Cost, Material: NA
Total Time: 58 hours
talihaller 