Buffalo Falafel

from Thug Kitchen

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Serves: 1
• Yields: 12 balls

Ingredients

• for Falafel

• 1 1⁄2 cups  cooked chickpeas or 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed
• 1⁄3 lb cauliflower
• 1⁄4 cup  diced onion (yellow, white, red, whatever)
• 1 -2  garlic clove
• 1  teaspoon olive oil
• 1⁄2 teaspoon  seasoning, blend (The no-salt all purpose blends are best because you can add that salt later in small amounts)
• 2  tablespoons  breadcrumbs

• BUFFALO SAUCE

• 2  tablespoons olive oil
• 2  tablespoons flour (Whole-wheat flour works here so does brown rice flour. Use whatever)
• 1  cup  cayenne based  hot sauce
• 1⁄4 cup water
• 1  tablespoon vinegar (Apple cider vinegar is my favorite here but white vinegar would work too. Use what you got)

Directions

1. For the falafel: Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray some oil on a baking sheet. Chopped the cauliflower up into small pieces. Throw it in a food processor and run until the pieces of cauliflower kind of look like rice. If you don’t have a food processor then just chop up as small as you can. Mash the chickpeas in a medium bowl until they form a paste. Chop the garlic up into small pieces. Add the cauliflower, onion, garlic, oil, seasoning blend, and breadcrumbs to the chickpeas and mix. If your seasoning blend didn’t have salt in it, now you can add a pinch of salt. The mixture should easily form into balls. If it is too dry, add a little water. No stress. Form the mixture into balls a little bigger than a ping pong ball. Throw the balls on the baking sheet and bake them for 20-25 minutes, flipping half way through. Remember to set a timer so that you don’t burn them. Both sides should be nice and golden. While the falafel bake, make the buffalo sauce.
2. For the buffalo sauce: In a small saucepan, heat the oil over a medium-low heat. Add the flour and stir constantly until the flour starts to look golden and smell kinda toasted. A few bubbles are cool but this shouldn’t look like it’s boiling. This takes about 4 minutes if you got your heat right. Add half the hot sauce and stir until it is all mixed. The flour should make that shit thicken up a bit. Add the rest of the hot sauce, water, and vinegar and stir until it is all mixed up. Turn off the heat.
3. When the falafel are done cooking, push them gently to the center of the baking sheet and put ¾ of the buffalo sauce on them. Bake for like 5 extra minutes so that the falafel absorbs that sauce. Pour the extra sauce over them when they get out of the oven or whenever you eat them.
4. You can serve these in pita bread, on top of a salad, or however you want. I recommend some celery sticks.