Pea Falafel

March's featured veggie is PEAS at Veggie Buds Club! We hope you enjoy this delicious pea recipe from this month's Veggie Buds Club subscription box.
​
This recipe was developed by Heather Staller, a mom of two boys, ages 6 and 4, and cooking instructor specializing in bringing cooking into preschool classrooms. After college, Heather knew she wanted to be a teacher, but first followed her lifelong dream of going to culinary school. Teaching cooking combines both of her passions, and she truly enjoys introducing young children to the joys of cooking with fresh ingredients. Find Heather on Instagram (@heather.happykidskitchen), where she shares inventive kid-friendly recipes and ideas for cooking with kids at home.

---

Pea Falafel

These falafel patties are packed with peas! Your little chefs will love adding all the ingredients to the food processor, pushing the button, and helping to make the patties with their hands. Not only are they fun to make, but you can enjoy them in so many different ways. Eat them like “nuggets” with Greek yogurt for dipping, in pita bread, or on top of lettuce leaves
with any toppings you’d like. You could even make the patties a little bigger and eat them on a bun as a burger or cook the falafel mixture in a waffle iron to make falafel waffles. Any way you cook them, falafel is the perfect way to enjoy peas!

Ingredients

• 1 cup peas, cooked if from fresh or defrosted if frozen
  
• 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  
• ¼ cup Italian parsley leaves
  
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder or 1 garlic clove, minced
  
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  
• ¼ teaspoon cumin, optional
  
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
  
• 2 to 3 tablespoons oat or whole wheat flour
  
• 1 teaspoon olive oil, plus more for cooking
  
• Yogurt, pita bread, tomatoes, cucumber, or desired toppings, for serving

Instructions

1. Add peas, chickpeas, and parsley to a bowl of a food processor. Pulse until roughly chopped. 
   
2. Add lemon juice, garlic, salt, cumin, baking powder, and 2 tablespoons of flour. Pulse all ingredients until well combined and finely chopped, stopping to scrape the sides down a couple of times as needed. Form a little of the mixture into a small patty. If the mixture is too sticky, add another tablespoon of flour and pulse again to mix in.
   
3. Form the pea mixture into 16 small patties and place on a plate.
   
4. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook falafel patties in batches, browning on each side then placing back on a plate to cool.
   
5. Serve falafel warm with a dip or in a pita pocket topped as desired.

 
To make falafel mixture into waffles, mix in 2 additional tablespoons of flour. Heat waffle iron and grease well. Do not open waffle iron before 5 minutes of cooking. Use a butter knife to gently lift falafel from the waffle iron and transfer to a plate.