Overcome Your Gut + Digestive Issues With Ancestral Nutrition
Falafel Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing
Since it was just Mother’s Day, I’m posting this recipe in honor of my amazing mother! My mom is big on health and taking care of herself. She loves to eat lots of veggies and this salad is one of her absolute favorite things that I make. This hardy salad makes for a delicious healthy substantial meal! Also the sauerkraut gives you lots of probiotics which are great for your gut bacteria and overall health.
I love making this salad for my mom because it brings her so much joy! Sharing my food with my loved ones is truly one of the best parts about cooking. Everybody eats, but ensuring that your tribe, your family and friends, are getting healthy, quality, delicious food is extremely satisfying and purposeful.
Cooking is such a useful skill and can be a very meaningful gift to share with those you love. Cooking gives me a sense of purpose and feeling of accomplishment. This comes from the tradition of providing home cooked meals for your family and having an important role in the household. As well as a feeling of empowerment that I get from following my passion and trying to make a difference in the world through educating myself about health eating, integrating that into my art form and passion of cooking and then sharing that with the world and hopefully inspiring others.
I truly believe in the power of healthy eating and cooking and I feel blessed to be able to share that with you. And I never could have done it with out my wonderful mom, so this ones for you mom, I love you so much and will happily make you falafel salad whenever you would like. Anyways I hope you and your family enjoy this recipe as much as my mom and I do.
With love from my kitchen to yours,
Kayley
Falafel Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing
AuthorKayley O'BrienPreheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly coat a backing sheet with oil or cover with parchment paper.
Grind flaxseeds into flaxseed meal in a blender and set aside. Then blend the almonds into almond flour and set 1/4 cup and 2 tbsp of the almond flour aside in a small bowl. Add the flaxseed meal, garlic, onions, parsley, cilantro, chickpeas, 1 tbsp oil, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper to the almond flour still in the blender and blend till smooth. If you have a tamper, use the tamper to help move things along while blending. You can also stop blending and stir with a spoon from time to time to help things blend more efficiently.
Scoop out 1 tbsp of the mixture , roll into a ball, coat in the almond flour you set aside earlier, place on the baking sheet, and flatten into a disk or hockey puck shape. Repeat, till you have used all the mixture.
Next, pour 3 tbsp olive oil into a bowl and use a brush to brush oil over the falafels. Bake for 15 minutes, flip over and bake for about 10 more minutes or until lightly browned and firm.
Meanwhile, prepare the dressing. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend till smooth. Then refrigerate till the salad is ready.
Next prepare your salad. Place lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, and sauerkraut in a bowl. Repeat to make 4 individual salads. Divide the falafels and dressing evenly between the salads, garnish with minced parsley, and enjoy!
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly coat a backing sheet with oil or cover with parchment paper.
Grind flaxseeds into flaxseed meal in a blender and set aside. Then blend the almonds into almond flour and set 1/4 cup and 2 tbsp of the almond flour aside in a small bowl. Add the flaxseed meal, garlic, onions, parsley, cilantro, chickpeas, 1 tbsp oil, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper to the almond flour still in the blender and blend till smooth. If you have a tamper, use the tamper to help move things along while blending. You can also stop blending and stir with a spoon from time to time to help things blend more efficiently.
Scoop out 1 tbsp of the mixture , roll into a ball, coat in the almond flour you set aside earlier, place on the baking sheet, and flatten into a disk or hockey puck shape. Repeat, till you have used all the mixture.
Next, pour 3 tbsp olive oil into a bowl and use a brush to brush oil over the falafels. Bake for 15 minutes, flip over and bake for about 10 more minutes or until lightly browned and firm.
Meanwhile, prepare the dressing. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend till smooth. Then refrigerate till the salad is ready.
Next prepare your salad. Place lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, and sauerkraut in a bowl. Repeat to make 4 individual salads. Divide the falafels and dressing evenly between the salads, garnish with minced parsley, and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition:
Falafels-
| Ingredients | Calories | Fat | Carbs | Protein |
| 1/2 cup 2 tbsp almonds (86.3g) | 515.6 | 45.6g | 18.1g | 18.1g |
| 1/4 cup red onion, diced (40g) | 16.8 | 0g | 4g | 0.4g |
| 1 can chickpeas | 352 | 7g | 57g | 18g |
| 2 1/2 tbsp olive oil | 300 | 35g | 0g | 0g |
| 2 tbsp flax seeds | 110 | 8.6g | 6g | 3.8g |
| Total (serves 4) | 1,294.4 | 96.2g | 85.1g | 40.3g |
| 1 serving | 323.6 | 24.1g | 21.3g | 10.1g |
Lemon Tahini Dressing-
| Ingredients | Calories | Fat | Carbs | Protein |
| 1/3 cup tahini | 586.1 | 53.6g | 10.7g | 16.1g |
| 2 tbsp olive oil | 240 | 28g | 0g | 0g |
| Total (serves 4) | 826.1 | 81.6 | 10.7g | 16.1g |
| 1 serving (1/4 th of dressing) | 206.5 | 20.4g | 2.7g | 4g |
1 serving salad-
| Ingredients | Calories | Fat | Carbs | Protein |
| 1 serving falafel | 323.6 | 24.1g | 21.3g | 10.1g |
| Tahini dressing | 206.5 | 20.4g | 2.7g | 4g |
| 2 cups romain lettuce, chopped | 10 | 0g | 2g | 1g |
| 1/2 tomato (46g) | 8.4 | 0.1g | 1.8g | 0.4g |
| 1/4 large cucumber, sliced (50.3g) | 7.5 | 0.1g | 1.8g | 0.3g |
| 2 thin slices onion (19g) | 8 | 0g | 1.8g | 0.2g |
| 3 tbsp sauerkraut | 7.5 | 0g | 1.5g | 0g |
| Total (serves 1) | 571.5 | 44.7g | 32.9g | 16g |
(1)
Notes:
* Nutrition is based on the products I use. I provide a nutrition table so that you can quickly check to see if your food product s match or so that you can easily calculate the nutrition for any changes you want to make to the recipe. I think this helps if you have very specific diet goals and/or fitness and/or health goals. I also wanted you to be able to see exactly where I get the numbers for my nutrition facts so that you can see that they are reliable and learn more about macro breakdowns of food.
* I only calculated some of the oil because a lot sticks to the baking sheet and you don’t end up eating that.
* A note about flaxseeds: Flaxseed meal is much easier to digest and absorb than whole flaxseeds (which tend to pass through your GI track without being absorbed and come out in your feces). Therefore you absorb far more nutrients from flaxseed meal. But once you grind up flaxseeds they oxidize very quickly. Oxidation creates free radicals (unstable chemical structures) which cause damage in the body and raise ones risk for cardio vascular disease, heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, and other health problems. By grinding flaxseeds fresh you avoid oxidation and are able to absorb more nutrients.
Works Cited
1. Nutritionix. Gladson. https://www.nutritionix.com/. Accessed 19 April 2020.
About Kayley
Kayley is a certified gut health nutrition coach who helps people to overcome their chronic gut and digestive issues at the root using the principles of ancestral nutrition and holistic health. (Continue Reading Here)
