Monday makeover
Megan May gets creative with leftover roast veges
Winter often means a smaller range of seasonal produce, which can feel rather limiting when it comes to making a meal. Rather than seeing it as a negative, try and use those limitations to get your creative juices flowing, and come up with new ways of using these winter vegetables.
My carrot and pumpkin falafels are a nice way of adding some extra veges into a kebab shop favourite — and a great way of using up leftover roast vegetables from the night before.
If you don’t have a chance to make the cashew tzatziki, you can mix together some coconut yoghurt, lemon juice, garlic, salt and herbs.
I’ve baked these falafels, but if you want something a little extra crispy, you could always bake them for a shorter time, before finishing them off in the frying pan (just be careful as the sesame seeds will burn easily). Carrot and pumpkin falafels
2 cups cooked chickpeas (ideally home
cooked and still with some firmness to them) ¾ cup roasted pumpkin (any variety will do) 1 tsp lime or lemon zest
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp cumin powder
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
½ tsp smoked paprika
3 Tbsp chickpea flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ -1 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp tahini
1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped or dried chilli
flakes to taste
1 carrot, finely grated
3 Tbsp chopped coriander
3 Tbsp chopped parsley
⅓ cup sesame seeds, for rolling in
Olive oil, for roasting
1 Make sure you have the cooked chickpeas and roasted pumpkin ready. Heat the oven to 210C fan-bake.
2 Place all the falafel ingredients (except the carrot, fresh coriander and parsley) into a food processor and blend by pulsing until the mixture comes together, and you can shape it easily in your hand without it falling apart.
3 If you need a little extra moisture, add a few teaspoons of water until it comes together; you don’t want to over-blend the mixture though, so make sure you leave a little texture to it. If your mixture is too wet, add a little more of the chickpea flour. 4 Transfer to a bowl and add the carrot, parsley and coriander, mixing by hand until combined. Check the flavour of the mixture — you may need to add a little more salt or spice depending on the sweetness of your carrot and pumpkin.
5 Roll the falafel mixture into balls. Place the
sesame seeds on a plate and roll the falafels in the mixture, giving them a light coating 6 Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and flatten slightly. Drizzle with a little olive oil and bake for 20 minutes or until the sesame seeds are golden and the falafels cooked all the way through. 7 Remove from the oven and serve straight away, drizzled with cashew tzatziki, spicy chilli sauce and fresh salad greens. Cashew tzatziki
1 cup cashews (soaked 2-4 hours) ¼ cup water (more as needed) ⅓ cup lemon juice
½ tsp sea salt
1 crushed garlic clove
2 Tbsp chopped dill or mint
½ cup finely diced cucumber
Drain the soaked cashews and rinse thoroughly. Place all the ingredients in a blender except the herbs and cucumber and blend until smooth and creamy. Transfer to a bowl, and fold in the herbs and cucumber. Leave to rest for a half hour before serving. This will allow the flavours to develop. It will keep in a jar in the fridge for around 5 days. Megan May is the creator of Little Bird Organics and the Unbakery cafes.