Mung Falafel 1

Mung falafels add an Ayurvedic twist to this popular Middle-Eastern food, that is originally made using chickpeas or fava beans. Paired with hummus and some freshly chopped cucumber, these healthy shallow-fried versions of falafels will tantalize your every sense – visually appealing, appetizing, aromatic and oh-so-delicous – and absolutely guilt-free too!

Ingredients (makes around 15 medium sized falafel patties):

• Green mung beans (1 cup after soaking)
• Garlic (1 medium sized pod)
• Ginger (1/2 inch sized piece)
• Red Chilly (1 whole)
• Coriander leaves (a handful)
• Onion (1/4th cup) (optional)
• Cumin powder (1/3 tsp)
• Coriander powder (1/3 tsp)
• Turmeric (1/4 tsp)
• Sea salt (to taste)
• Lemon Juice (1 tbsp)
• Gram flour (1 tbsp)

Method:

• Soak 3/4th cup of mung beans overnight in enough water.
• In the morning, cook the mung beans with a little salt. (I usually pressure cook them in a little water for 1 whistle and switch off the flame). Make sure that you don’t overcook the beans – they should be cooked, but still retain their shape.
• When the beans have cooled down, coarsely grind the mung beans with all the other ingredients.
• Toast (dry roast) the gram flour on medium flame. Ensure that you keep stirring continuously to prevent burning.
• Mix the toasted gram flour with the ground mung mixture. Make balls and flatten them into patties.

• If you have time, refrigerate them for a few minutes.
• Shallow fry using a little ghee. Very little ghee is needed to shallow fry these. Switch off flame when the falafel patties attain a golden brown color on both sides.

• You can eat these as is or with hummus.
• Alternatively, you can fashion a wrap made out of homemade paratha (or roti or pita bread) using these falafel patties and hummus. Spread some hummus on the bread. Place falafels in the center and top using salad vegetables like fresh tomatoes, cucumber, onions and coriander leaves.

• These wraps make for a yummy lunch for the kids and adults alike.

Tastes (Rasa):

Sweet (mung), sour (lemon), salty (sea salt), bitter (cumin, coriander, turmeric), pungent (ginger, chilly, garlic, cumin), astringent (coriander leaves).

Doshic Influence:

Mung is the most easily digestible of all the beans and lentils. Mung beans are slightly harder to digest than the split lentil version of the same, but nonetheless mung beans are a way better choice for falafels than chickpeas, as far as digestibility goes! Addition of ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric, lemon further aid in the enhancing the digestibility of the mung beans, but take care to avoid making them too pungent – to prevent the pitta aggravating qualities from increasing. Beans in general are a little difficult to digest, and are known to cause flatulence especially for vatas. Soaking the beans adequately and lightly cooking them before making the patties will help reduce this effect.

Effects on the Mind (Gunas):

This mung falafel recipe is largely sattvic, if the digestive fire (agni) is strong enough to be able to digest it. If agni is weak, the load on the digestion can lead to discomfort, flatulence and such other symptoms, thereby causing rajas (turbulence or stimulation) in the body and mind.