mideast feast

this semester i'm taking food service where in groups of three we choose a theme and plan an appetizer, entree, sides, bread and dessert. we chose to do a vegetarian (only group!) middle eastern meal-
appetizer: roasted red pepper hummus with baked pita
entree: baked falafel with tahini lemon sauce
sides: quinoa tabbouleh and a cucumber yogurt salad
dessert: chocolate covered dates with almond and coconut

the recipes need to be tested out before we actually go through w/ our meal so i took on the bread (new found appreciation for all those fresh baked artisan breads!) and the falafel (b/c as a vegetarian there is nothing like an easy new way to eat protein)

this is from foodnetwork- i'm not feeling too confident about my bread making skills, but we'll find out in about another hour when i actually get to cut and cook this sucker. cross my fingers! oh, and i didn't have any whole wheat flour, so my recipe is all white flour.

this is the most straightforward easiest recipe to follow. i halved the recipe b/c i didn't feel like dealing with that many falafel patties when i wasn't going to be home anytime soon again. but half the recipe from tastykitchen gave me 6 patties of the shape and size described in the recipe. it wasn't until this class where we have to calculate every ingredient and portion that i realized how nice it is to have really descriptive recipes to follow. since i was just trying to get an idea of how many falafel this recipe made i fudged with the ingredients that i didn't have so mine did not have the coriander, chili powder (i used korean red chili pepper flakes instead:), and i had to make do w/ dried parsley and minced garlic (and i was very heavy handed with the garlic, b/c, c'mon, it's garlic, you can never go wrong). i love food processors. these suckers are good. too bad the bread isn't done- but i wrapped mine in some lettuce w/ some hummus (more chickpeas!) and feta cheese crumbled on top. eum eum eum 

i'll check back in with you about the pita o_O