How to Make Perfectly Fluffy Falafel and Moroccan Lentil and Chickpea Soup

today on America's Test Kitchen Elle and Julia revealed the secrets to perfect falafel Jack challenges Bridget to a tasting of canned chickpeas and Becky makes Bridget a show-stopping Moroccan lentil and chickpea soup it's all coming up right here on America's Test Kitchen my very first cooking job which was about 25 years ago was making a falafel at a tiny vegan restaurant in Albany New York called dahlias now back then falafel wasn't as popular as it is today which is good and bad good because falafel is delicious it's healthy and you can find it almost everywhere but bad because there's a lot of terrible versions out there that no amount of sauce can fix but today ELLs gonna show us how to make falafel at home the right way that's right we tried a ton of recipes in the Test Kitchen and the worst of them were dents like hockey puns they were dry and beany and flavorless but the best of them had nice brown crisp exteriors light fluffy interiors full of warm spices and herbs mm-hmm delicious when they're good absolutely so let's get started first things first chickpeas this is our primary ingredient in falafel and you want to stay away from the falafel kits that have ground dried chickpeas they're terrible we're soaking these because if you use cooked you'd get hummus mm-hmm if it were dried you get flour exactly neither of which you want something in the middle something in the middle this is eight ounces of chickpeas I'm covering these in two to three inches of cold water and we're gonna soak them 8 to 24 hours so while these are soaking we're gonna start with our favorite condiment yes tahini sauce mm-hmm tahini is made with toasted ground sesame seeds until there's ground into a paste has a nice texture is beautiful tahini yeah it is and we're starting with just 1/3 cup now to make a light refreshing sauce for our falafel we're just gonna add a few delicious ingredients like 1/3 cup of Greek yogurt and 1/4 cup of lemon juice just that simple so I'm gonna mix these together I can't have a falafel without a nice sauce I actually usually double the sauce and I put it on every couple I mean it's just delicious all right so it's a little thick you can add up to a quarter cup of water to thin it out and obviously the amount of water you add will vary depending on the thickness of your tahini and the thickness of your regular oh that looks good and smooth yeah and we didn't change the texture too much but we definitely added some cream oh this is making me excited about meat sooner than later all right so I'm gonna add a couple of pinches of salt for flavor season to taste oh that's perfect mmm that's so good now I'm more excited than ever for falafel so I'm just gonna cover this you can store it in an airtight container in your fridge for up to four days all right so these chickpeas have soaked mm-hmm they're bigger than they were absolutely and the texture has changed you can kind of dig your nail and you can pop it open like that so it's just softened just soften it's gonna do a lot for the texture of our falafel so there's moving over and let's get started making the falafel with half an onion this is about half a cup I've had lots of falafel with great texture but no flavor mm-hmm today we're going to achieve both we're gonna pack these falafel with tons of herbs and warm spices 3/4 cups of cilantro 3/4 cups parsley lots of fresh herbs lots of fresh herbs is super important I love it when the fluff will have kind of a green look to it so you know it's gonna have some flavor that's right two cloves of garlic minced 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of coriander one teaspoon of cumin 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper so just a little kick just a little kick all right so we're just going to create a pace out of this I'm gonna blitz it for five seconds all right that looks great definitely more like a pesto nice yes and now we can add chickpeas oh here you go thank you alright so we're gonna just post these that's it we'll see hmm not quite okay there's some big pieces still yeah there's still big pieces in there we want the chickpeas to look like steel cut oats oh that's pretty bad yeah yeah it's pretty big not this big but I've listed six more times let's see what we do oh that looks great take a look at that you don't have to grind it that fine we already are going to add a binder to this so we don't need to make a pace ah so you can leave me kind of chunky that's right it will contribute to the airy fluffy texture of the falafel how interesting yeah so we're gonna make a flour based binder so we have 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour and the third cup of water I'm just gonna give that a good mix and we're gonna actually cook this binder in the microwave so you make a flour paste basically most falafels are made with a dry flour as a binder that usually yields a dry dusty falafel we don't want that we're gonna use this cooked paste to bind our falafel without drying it out mm-hmm and it'll Brown nicely which is key all right that's well mixed it needs to go in the microwave for 40 seconds so we're just gonna stir it every 10 seconds to check the texture right make sure it doesn't get lumpy that's right all right so this looks great it cooked for 40 seconds stirring every 10 seconds and we know it's ready because it'll stand - a mound when dropped from spatula this is actually gonna add some moisture to our falafel which never hurts we're gonna add 2 teaspoons of baking powder this is gonna act as our leavener and give us light fluffy falafel we're gonna add this to our falafel mix so just mixing it well well really mix this right in it pretty easily it really does want to make sure it's all up and through here it almost disappears it's like you don't even know that it's there all right that looks great would you mind helping me roll out some falafel no I love to so we're gonna use a number 30 scoop love these make it so easy to get evenly sized portions so they cook at the same rate we're just gonna go scoop here nice level scoop and then just give it a little shape and we're gonna get about 24 falafel all right know what's cheaper we're going for today golf ball shaped it go we're doing round one yes I've seen them shapes like pugs yep but I like the round because you have more of that fluffy interior the pucks they get a little dry so what's great about this falafel recipe is that you can actually form them and freeze them oh so you can come off to order oh yeah look at these falafel you get a good job you're at all your skills paid off it kind of came back after a while get your groove back I get it well these are good I think it's time to start frying it hmm we have two quarts of vegetable oil here and we've heated to 325 degrees it's very important to keep this oil at 325 degrees so when we cook the first batch the temp might drop right because if the oil is too high you'll get too much of a crust you'll have sort of an empty inside but if it's too low it won't proper Brown that's right so we're gonna fry this in batches we're gonna start with 1/2 I like to lure them in with the spiders I don't think all right keep your fingers away from the oil yeah and they're just gonna go for about 5 minutes we're looking for a deep golden-brown I like to give them a little stars in there and I'll stick together and they'll start floating to the top the closer they get to being done okay so the second batch is done oh those are lookers oh man let's make some sandwiches yes mmm I love all the condiments you have out here thank you I mean kind of been Queen are you yes so okay now do you put a little tahini down in the pita I like to get a little moisture down deep in the pita a little bit of lettuce cucumbers yep and the tomatoes and the cucumbers start to release their moisture with that sauce heaven now how many of these in a sandwich I think there is a safe number yeah three looks gigs it fills it up nicely last but not least no more sauce top it off oh that is a beautiful looking sandwich mmm that's falafel done right I love the heat from the falafel and the coolness of the cucumbers and the tomatoes and that lettuce it's really that balance that's just awesome take that value add so if you want to make the ultimate falafel at home start by soaking dried chickpeas and water overnight using the food processor make a spiced onion cilantro parsley pesto then add the chickpeas and pulse until coarsely chopped make a cooked flour and water paste in the microwave and add it to the falafel along with a little baking powder before shaping them into balls fry them in batches and serve with a classic tahini sauce and pita along with fresh cucumbers and tomatoes from America's Test Kitchen to your kitchen fabulous new recipe for falafel Hillar al I might have to move to the fork I'm just yeah I'm just going to take this block [Music] chickpeas were one of the original cultivated crops in fact researchers found in the Middle East a crop from 7500 years ago that's a long time but Jack's here to talk about a much newer hybrid the canned chickpea they're a little fresher I just have to start with a little odd - the chickpea it's having a moment what else can't but you do it's everything to everyone there's actually a shortage some people are saying well you know we're not only using the chickpeas we're now using the liquid and a lot of our soup recipes we are using the liquid to make meringue for vegan baking it's called aqua fava so anyway this is going to be simple I hope these are plain as you can see this is basically from the can we also made hummus you can dig in we also made pasta with cheese and pancetta and all these herbs and rosemary and garlic and you didn't get any of that today no great so this is mostly a good news story I'm switching to my fingers I hope you don't mind you can taste however you want to taste Bridget there's really only one mistake that a manufacturer can make and that is to leave out the salt I think I might have found it and we found even if you cook it in a recipe with a lot of salty ingredients canned tomatoes chicken broth and Chetta the chickpea itself never face properly since it it's the idea of you know if you cook pasta in a pot with no salt there's nothing you can do to make it taste good no matter how salty the sauce is same thing with the chickpea so we had six brands two of them had little or no sodium and those were at the bottom of the rankings they weren't awful but they were just bland among the four brands that contain salt so we're differences in texture somewhere a little creamier somewhere a little on the softer side some might have been on a little bit on the firm side that's basically about how they were cooked so the dried beans are soaked they're put in the cans and they're pressure-cooked and based on the temperature or the length they might get a little bit softer or a little firmer depending on how the manufacturer makes them but they're pretty small differences you've been sampling them one at a time it's very elegant tasting don't you think yes what a great cocktail party Jack I will party anything you're noticing among these four samples yes they're all chickpeas they're all chickpeas they're all cold and they're all in a bowl this one tastes like it has a zero seasoning it's also for lack of a better word very al dente really really almost gritty and that's actually gonna translate in the hummus test so we found the ones that were on the firm side or the gritty side made kind of gritty hummus and the ones that were really soft made a thin hummus like it didn't have enough body to stick to a pita chip and so the creamy chickpeas not only taste better right from the can like you're having them here but also they make a better hummus so there's one that you clearly weren't that wad about mm-hmm the other three on this one it's not too bad it's not very well seasoned in my opinion this one unlike the seasoning I think this is my favorite okay you want to see what you picked I'm so nervous you chose the winner oh good you agree with the tasting panel goryeo we thought it would the best texture right amount of seasoning it not only did well in this test it did well and hummus tests in the pasta test it's our favorite chicken it's a great all-around chick pea all right I'm gonna go with the other side so this is Eden this is a brand that has no salt has a little kombu some seaweed but it does not do the same thing that salt does and it's very bland as I say it continues to be bland when you cook with it it actually they feel undercooked as well yeah all right this one Progresso it was recommended it's fine some of the tasters thought was the low on the soft side it was sort of the least favorite among the ones we recommend it okay and this one was probably they run around and the runner-up the pass team and you know again it's seasoned well too it's a nice choice you know you start cooking with the pus teen versus Liguria and the differences are probably gonna get fairly small mm-hmm yeah I love the texture of these and the seasoning just throw them in the fryer and be done and you're one happy chickpea I'm one happy chick very very good well there you go next time you're making a hummus or say you just want to eat them right out of a glass bowl the winner was Goya chick peas garbanzos and they sell for 89 cents I can it's a good day in the Test Kitchen because we are making Herrera now it's a Moroccan lentil soup and it's chock full of hearty ingredients we've got beans greens tomatoes and warm spices but best of all Becky is here and she's going to show us a really easy weeknight version that we can make a home that's right and it calls for mostly staples that you probably already have on hand that's great because I've seen some really complicated versions out there so this is easy it's easy simple so we can have more often that's right so I have 1/3 of a cup of extra virgin olive oil I'm heating this up over medium-high heat and we're going to be doing a meatless version of harira okay sometimes it has lamb or chicken or beef but we're gonna do no meat and no meat that's still gonna be nice and hearty thanks and hearty and partly and thanks to this oil 1/3 of a cup this is really the only fat in the recipe so it's gonna give it a little bit of richness Oh perfect see that's starting to shimmer already right so I have one onion diced up we'll put this in and two ribs of celery and we'll let this go for about seven minutes we're looking for the veggies to turn translucent and just a little bit Brown all right sounds good spend seven minutes you can see the veggies starting to get a little bit soft and translucent so you're not looking for a lot of brown color here no just a tiny bit you can see just around the edges okay but not a ton so let's move on let's turn the heat first down to medium alright and I'm adding a tablespoon of fresh ginger and a lot of recipes call for dried ginger but we really like the thing that you get from fresh they're completely different animals that's so true but the powder ginger really just tastes florals but when you start adding fresh ginger you get a little heat kick yeah well yeah so good and now I have five cloves of garlic minced up so just let that go for a minute you just want to start to smell it I can smell it already right I can smell it that's starting to smell really good sure I'm in it let's move on to our spices okay now harira sometimes will have up to a dozen spices yes I've made them before yeah that's a lot it is so we paired it down to five essentials okay but really give you a nice balanced flavor all right so let's start with two teaspoons of paprika that'll of course add that beautiful smokiness two teaspoons of coriander and the nice citrusy taste to it or does and we're using a good amount of both of these we found that when we didn't use enough the scoop sort of tastes more like minestrone and that's like chimera so it was a smoked paprika and the coriander that really turned it into the hair railroad exactly those are sort of the two signature spices that we're using but there's more oh yes so teaspoon of cumin okay also very warm a little bit smoky 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon that's warm berry lots of complexity here and then for just a little bit of heat an eighth of a teaspoon of pepper flakes okay so let's let that go for another minute and we're blooming with spices and the oil that's gonna take away some of their grittiness because we're using a pretty good amount here it's true it's but the oil is also going to help to release the oil soluble compounds they really make a smaller amount of spices taste even bigger and more complex right and you want to make sure you're using fresh legs here because we're using so many spices will generally keep in a cool dark place for about a year if it doesn't smell really potent that was probably time to replace it time to let it go yep all right that's looking great so let's add some fresh herbs all right we're gonna be adding herbs in two stages we're gonna add some now and some at the end because this recipe has a lot of herb presence all right let's do a half a cup of mint cilantro and a quarter cup of mint parsley cilantro is just a continuation of that coriander flavor right that's right both in the same yeah coriander is the seed and the cilantro is the leaves all right so it's been another minute and now let's get some liquid in the soup so I'm gonna be using four cups of chicken broth and four cups of water we found that if we used all chicken broth it just tasted to chickeny right and we don't want that and if you want to make this completely vegetarian it's fine to use the full eight cups of veggie broth and now we'll add the beans that we were talking about I have one can of chickpeas 15 ounce can that's been drained and rinsed we consider dried chickpeas for this recipe they just take way too long to cook right I've seen chickpeas dried chickpeas I've also seen fava beans use both of them can be a little bit of a pain yeah if you start from scratch yeah so the canned chickpeas perfect yeah and you're really not sacrificing anything by using the canned they're very good they're great product so finally I'm adding one cup of brown lentils these have been rinsed I picked through them to remove any debris that was in there and we'll put those in you find anything good nothing good nothing making jewelry out of anything and you know you can find canned lentils I don't know if you've ever seen those never seen canned lentils yeah they're actually decent product and we consider them here but the dried lentils only take 20 minutes right it's gonna go with those they're less expensive but you wouldn't want to use something like red lentils because they would probably fall apart they would they would totally lose their shape so I'm gonna turn up the heat here to medium-high we're gonna bring this up to a simmer once this reaches a simmer I'm gonna partially cover it turn it back down to medium low and let it simmer for 20 minutes so it's been 20 minutes and you can see this is the partially covered pot we just have a little bit of space for some steam to escape hmm that's looking good and our lentils are just tender here you can see they held their shape that's just what we want so let's move on let's add one 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes and we're choosing that because it's already broken down right no work to do yep I told you is gonna be easy I love Beck he's keeping everything here and let's add 1/2 a cup of orzo okay the pasta harira typically contains some kind of pasta or rice there's a lot of different choices we just liked where so let's put that in so I'm gonna partially cover this again we'll let it simmer for 7 minutes and then we'll come back and finish up okay it's been seven minutes take a peek here smelling for good it does so let's add some greens Herrera almost always contains some type of green we chose just one that we really like this is four ounces of Swiss chard I took out the stems and chop the leaves into half-inch pieces all right not using the tough stems no we can use those for something else they're totally edible but just not in the soup so four ounces there's some pretty color there yeah really nice stir that up and we'll let this go for another five minutes okay also partially covered alright so it's been five minutes let's take a look as good in here yeah I'm gonna take a quick taste I wanna make sure that pasta is done okay I'm also gonna check for seasoning really good if I do say so and you should turn off the heat here okay and we're going to finish the soup with two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice just brighten it up yeah and lemon is a very predominant flavor sometimes it even includes preserved lemon but we really like the bright taste of the fresh else gonna add some more herbs add another 1/4 cup of minced parsley and another quarter cup of mint cilantro again just to add some freshness at the end here the herbs that you use when you put them near the beginning of cooking they're gonna give a very different flavor than herbs added right at the end absolutely so allow me here so colorful it's gorgeous isn't it you can actually smell the cinnamon in the cumin miss Smoak paprika as well love smoked paprika it's like the bacon of the spice world yes it really doesn't have a really nice smokiness to it so I have a couple of garnishes here some fresh lemon of course I recommend giving it a little squeeze there and then this is harissa this is a North African chili paste it's got a lot of spice to it great depth of flavor and it really adds a lot of complexity to the city it sure it does you can find this in the international aisle of most supermarkets we also have a recipe for harissa on our website oh very good sir you never without it that's right you don't want to be without it after tasting this soup mmm-hmm right the lemon the herbs everything yeah warm beans the the chickpeas and the lentils they're both creamy and tender you get that a little bits of orzo in there too and you know they don't take over but it's a nice little counterpoint in texture but I love the tomatoes and the lemon it's nice brightness you have all those warm spices in there too it's really rich and the baddest thing but it's it's light at the same time you know I mean you're not gonna get stuffed at the end of the meal but no I feel totally satisfied well you can call it what you want but I would call it outstanding Thank You Becky welcome well if you'd like to make harira a home it starts by sautéing onions and celery and then load in the spices you've got ginger coriander and smoked paprika along with fresh cilantro and parsley simmer with broth chickpeas and lentils add tomatoes orzo and Swiss chard and finish with lemon juice and some more fresh herbs served with lemon and harissa so from our Test Kitchen to your kitchen a spiced smoky sultry Avira or Moroccan lentil and chickpea soup and you can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season along with our testings tastings and selected episodes on our website americastestkitchen.com Thank You Becky sultry thanks for watching America's Test Kitchen what you think we'll leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or you can just say hello you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our Channel see you later I'll see you later

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 92,836

Keywords: harira, falafel, deep frying, morrocan food, chickpeas, harira recipe, how to make harira, moroccan harira, americas test kitchen, cooks illustrated

Id: fddKVoDB1Zk

Length: 23min 6sec (1386 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 21 2020