If you love falafel as much as I do you will love this recipe! I was craving falafel but wanted something other than the patties I usually make and I had some beautiful heirloom tomatoes…so I did a little digging. I was inspired by a recipe I found in one of my issues of Bon Appetit. No cooking required (except for heating up the naan). I think you’ll be just as pleased as I was.
You can certainly take the time and soak dry chickpeas over night then cook them before you make this…but since I spontaneously make things, I prefer to use organic canned chickpeas which I always have.
I absolutely LOVE anything made with yogurt, especially savory yogurt sauces. I doubled the recipe for this sauce, and yes, I used the whole thing!
Have everything prepped in separate bowls before you heat up the naan. It will make the assembly a lot easier.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did. Leave me a comment and let me know how yours came out.
- TOMATOES
- 2 heirloom tomatoes, sliced
- 1t mango powder*
- ¼t red pepper flakes
- ½t ground coriander
- ½t ground cumin
- 1t coarse sea salt
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- CHICKPEAS
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 3T red wine vinegar
- ½c cilantro, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 shallots, minced (or sub red onion)
- 1t coarse sea salt
- fresh black pepper
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- YOGURT SAUCE
- 2 Persian cucumbers, diced (or sub 1 English cucumber)
- 1c plain greek yogurt
- ½c cilantro, chopped
- 1½t coarse sea salt
- ½t ground cumin
- ¼t cayenne
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- 4 large naan or 6 small naan
- For the tomatoes, combine the spices in a small bowl and arrange the sliced tomato onto a baking sheet or flat plate and sprinkle the mixture evenly on top. Let this sit for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare the chickpeas. In a medium bowl, toss the drained & rinsed chickpeas with the vinegar. salt and pepper. Using a fork or a potato masher, smash the chickpeas until they are coarse. It's fine if some of them stay whole, that will give it more texture. Add the cilantro, garlic, oil, salt & pepper and toss until combines. Taste for seasoning, add more salt if needed.
- In another bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the yogurt sauce. Taste for seasonings and adjust if needed.
- Place the naan on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, turning over half way through. This depends on how crisp you would like your naan to be. You can bake it directly on the oven rack or even on a pizza stone of you refer, any of these ways will work fine. Remove the naan from the oven and let them cool.
- Assembly: Top each naan with the yogurt sauce, the chickpea mixture and a few sliced tomatoes. Top with some flaked sea salt and a drizzly of olive oil.
- enjoy!
*if you can't find mango powder, you can substitute with sumac
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