Welcome to My Hungry Boys where I share what I love to cook for my husband and our four sons. I've made a lot of food over the years and I've learned a lot in the process.
I first tasted falafel a few years ago at Oleana, a restaurant in the Boston area that serves phenomenal food with a Turkish and Middle Eastern spin. At the time, I didn't even know how to pronounce falafel. But soon after tasting it, I knew I wanted to try making it at home. Traditionally, falafel is made with chickpeas that are soaked, ground, and fried. There's nothing quite like falafel fresh out of the fryer, but it can become a bit heavy and dry if left sitting for too long. Read more.
I really like homemade bread. I could eat it every night, and I probably do. It almost doesn't even matter what kind of bread it is... if it's fresh out of the oven, I'm all in.
But I love homemade pita bread. Most of all, I love watching it bake. I always gasp when I peek into the oven and see them puffing up; that magical moment exemplifies my love of cooking. When I first started making pita, the whole process seemed random and it drove me insane. Some pitas puffed while others didn't. But I think I've finally figured it out. Now when I make pita bread, they all come out of the oven looking and feeling like precious pillows. Read more.
A disclaimer: hummus is derived from the Arabic word for "mashed chickpeas," so "White Bean Hummus" is a bit of a misnomer. But definitions—like my recipes—are always changing, and I think we've revised hummus to mean: "any bean spread with tahini." So even though you'll find no chickpeas in my recipe, it still tastes, smells, and looks like hummus, so I'm going to name it accordingly. Traditionalists will scoff, but this creamy hummus tastes too amazing on a falafel sandwich for me to care.
In addition to its lack of chickpeas, this particular hummus' uniqueness is amplified by the inclusion of preserved lemon. Read more.
Tzatziki is traditionally made with Greek yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, herbs, and shredded cucumber. I love tzatziki, but I question whether cucumber is the best vegetable for this dish; it can be a bit bland, and it weeps when salted.
Why not the beet instead? Its earthiness provides a perfect compliment for the Greek yogurt, while its redness brings an invigorating personality to the color palette of a falafel sandwich. Peeling and grating beets can be quite a messy business, but c'est la vie. Put on that old shirt you've been meaning to throw away and just go for it, I say. Read more.
