Sweet Potato Falafels

At weekends, I find myself baking a rather large number of sweet treats and bakes. That's all well and good, but it does mean I sometimes forget lunch. As a result, this important meal ends up all too often as a scrabble around the cupboards, where baked beans are a pleasant surprise. Today I was determined to amend my ways, and these falafels came to mind. They are incredibly quick and easy to make, so if, like me, you've forgotten about lunch, you can whip these up in just over half an hour and nobody needs to be any the wiser. The recipe is also easily multiplied, so they'd make a great table filler at a buffet-type 'do' with a pot of houmous and those seemingly compulsory carrot sticks.

Recipe adapted from the BBC Good Food Sweet Potato Falafels recipe

Ingredients:

Makes 6

1 large sweet potato

1 large tbsp of houmous

1tsp ground cumin

1tsp ground coriander seeds

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Small handful of chopped, fresh coriander leaves

Zest of half a lemon

40g gram/spelt flour (plain or wholemeal would still be fine)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees c (non-fan) or 180 degrees c (fan)
• Microwave sweet potato whole (pierce the skin a few times first) for 4 minutes, turn it over, then for about 4 minutes more (feel free to turn it at more regular intervals if necessary) - microwave until it's a texture that you could mash.
• Remove the skin and mash with all the other ingredients.
• Shape into 6 balls and place onto a lightly oiled baking sheet. 
• Cook for 20 - 30 minutes - turn half way through cooking to brown both top and bottom.
• Serve with mango chutney, extra houmous, coriander leaves, pita breads... or whatever takes your fancy.

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