Baked Falafel

I tend to have food obsessions, where I barely eat anything else- these have included chocolate caramel eggs, celery, potato waffles and currently falafel. With this in mind, I thought I'd make my own. This is my second attempt- I don't have a food processor so I chopped the onion by hand which you have to do veeery finely. Also I shallow fried them the first time, the proper way to do it, but it took a long time, wasn't very healthy and I wasn't keen on the taste.

Here's the recipe....

Ingredients

Splash olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 x 400g/14oz can chickpeas

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp mixed herbs

1 lemon, zest grated

Salt and black pepper

Boil the chickpeas until softened. Fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes until softened, then add to the chickpeas and mash. Add the cumin, mixed herbs and lemon zest and mix well and season with salt and pepper. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Divide the mixture into 16 walnut-sized balls and place on a non-stick baking tray. Rest in the fridge for about half an hour. Remove the falafel from the fridge, drizzle with oil and bake for 25 minutes, or until crisp and golden-brown. Turn occasionally to ensure even cooking.