Red Lentil Falafel with Mint

Do you have any new year's resolutions?
I don't. Or not really, rather. I want to go to the cinema more often. To concerts, too.
I want to invite more people over, to cook more often for company.

I want to try new food. To cook through some of the recipes in my every growing folder of recipes-to-try.

I want to keep up with my friends, talk often.
I want to go to a Jazz club.
I want to go swimming in the Aare, the river here.
I want to go hiking.
Make lots of bite-sized food.

I want to finally make a poached egg.
I want to take a tour of the city I live in.
I want to make Ricotta.
I want to go canooing and snowshoeing.
I want to throw a party.
I want to go to some museums here.

And some things more.

But these are not resolutions. I keep this list so that I would always have an idea on what to do on a free day or weekend. I'll add to this list whenever I have a new idea.

After looking at this again, I now see that you could probably say that my new year's resolution is to make more amazing memories. I can live with that.


To start the year off on the healthy side, I made this Red Lentil Köfte. And did you notice I put "Make more bite-sized food" in my list? Let's start this year off right, 2012 is going to be the year of the small bites!
I saw different recipes for a Lentil Snack online, and found a recipe for Red Lentil Köfte in Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean.
These little nuggets are quite crunchy, a bit spicy and really good for you.



Red Lentil Falafel with Mint
Note: I used leftover rice in these, if you don't have any cooked rice on hand, you can also use couscous, bulgur, quinoa or any other grain that cooks up rather quickly. Just add it together with the lentils, or in the case of couscous just right before the lentils are done.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, chopped
1 tsp grated ginger
1/4 tsp fennel seeds
100g red lentils
100g cooked rice
2 tbsp (rice) flour
2 tbsp chopped mint
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder, (use more or less, according to your taste)
3 tbsp carrot furikake, or 1 carrot chopped in food processor
1 tbsp sesame seeds and 1 tbsp flax seed, mixed

Heat the olive oil in a pan on medium-high heat. Add the shallots and the ginger, saute for a minute or two. Add the fennel seeds and saute for another minute. Add the lentils, and about 300ml water. Cook for about 10 minutes, then add the rice. Add more water if the lentils are not soft yet and all water has evaporated. Cook until the lentils are rather mushy. Take the pan off the heat and let it all cool down, about half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Add the flour (I used rice flour, it doesn't matter much. Depending of the water content, you might have to add more flour) and then the mint, salt and pepper to taste, the chili powder and the carrots. Mix well, then form little balls and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. (My mixture was a bit wet, just try your best to make the balls)
Sprinkle with the sesame and flax seeds, or roll the balls in the seeds, if they are less sticky than mine.
Put the baking tray into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes or a bit more if they were on the sticky side, too.

Serve with a yogurt dip (with more mint), or in a pita bread like falafel, for example. Or just snack on them.
Makes about 30.