Shawarma with Falafel and Garlic Sauce

Hello! I hope you are all having lovely summers so far. I posted a picture on Instagram the other day with the caption "Summer has been so good to me so far" because I've recently just been basking in the little moments that are so uniquely summer. Last weekend, I went for a bike ride and hit up seven different festivals along the way! This weekend, I watched the sunset at the beach while sipping wine on a blanket, went to an outdoor concert, ran in the hot rain, picked strawberries with my mom, and drove up to the country to eat baked goods with freshly picked lavender. See what I mean? Summer summer summer. And although I am totally a die hard fall lover, summer is slowly inching its way into my heart. 

If you are wondering about my no-dessert challenge, it's been going well! I have been doing lots of cooking and baking because I feel like being in contact with sweets is kind of, sort of the same as eating them, right?? On Father's day, I wanted to make a meal that my whole family could not only eat but enjoy, which is harder than it sounds with two vegetarians, one meat lover, and two eat-anythings. I landed on shawarma with homemade garlic sauce and falafel and they were oh-so delicious! Even my dad was happy with his meal. Gasp!! 

My friend Kelly requested a blog post for these beauties, so ask and you shall receive said the Lord food blogger.

Shawarma with Falafel and Garlic Sauce

For the garlic sauce, I was looking for a recipe that was very very close to the sauce they serve at all the shawarma places in Ottawa. You know the type I mean, thick, garlicky, and the best part of the pita. After a lot  of googling and searching on Pinterest, I found a recipe that didn't require a whole cup of garlic and seemed fairly fail proof. I'm just going to link the recipe here because there are more steps than the Eiffel Tower...

Garlic Sauce

Be warned though that this is a little difficult to get just right and add the oil VERY slowly, like a couple drops at a time or else your sauce will separate. It might take you a little bit of time too,  but don't give up because everyone in my family agreed that this was key to the whole meal!

Falafel

This recipe, that I adapted from one I found on Pinterest, is the BOMB. So so so easy and good either in a pita with toppings, in a salad, or by itself. 

Ingredients

✿ Two cans of chickpeas (500g x 2)

✿ ½ cup fresh parsley, chopped

✿ ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

✿ 1 carrot, grated

✿ 1 onion, chopped

✿ 6 cloves of garlic, minced

✿ 4 Tbsp flour

✿ 1 tsp paprika

✿ 1 tsp rosemary

✿ ¼ tsp chili powder

✿ 1 tsp cumin

(or if you don't have a stacked spice rack just throw in a couple shakes of whatever to give it a little flavour... my version of "cooking")

✿ salt and pepper to taste

✿ 2 Tbsp tahini

Instructions

- Use a food processor to blend chickpeas

- Then add the chickpea paste to a large bowl and mix in the rest of the ingredients.

- Heat some oil in a frying pan

- Make the patties (about 2-3 Tbsp per patty)

- Fry them on each side for a minute, then bake them at 350ºF for 10 minutes on each side.

- Add the falafels to a pita with the garlic sauce, hummus, lettuce, tomato, and pickled turnip. 

- Enjoy!

xox

Gaby