Recipe: Lemon Dill Toasted Quinoa with Falafel and Pomegranate

Quinoa first-timers often ask us how to serve quinoa, a question that just about makes our brains explode! Not only can you substitute Toasted Quinoa in for rice, couscous and even pasta in many dishes, but you can also use Toasted Quinoa Flakes wherever you use rolled oats, or grind them and swap them into most baking recipes for flour. Today we've cooked our Toasted Quinoa with some garlic and onion and topped it with homemade falafel, dill, and a squeeze of lemon juice. 

Ingredients

Please note that we eyeballed our falafel recipe, adjusting ingredient amounts to taste. 

For the quinoa: 

• 1 cup I Heart Keenwah Toasted Quinoa, dry
• 2 cups water
• 1/2-1 cup fresh dill
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• sprinkling of sea salt

For the falafel: 

• 1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked in water overnight*
• your choice of spices (we used a lot of ground cumin, ground cinnamon, ground coriander, ground paprika, and lots of salt and pepper)
• fresh cilantro
• fresh parsley
• 1/2 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• sesame seeds
• pinch of baking powder
• pinch of baking soda

*Do NOT substitute canned chickpeas

Directions

1. Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil on medium heat until onion turns translucent.
2. Add dry toasted quinoa and stir for 1 minute.
3. Add water and bring mixture to a boil.
4. Turn heat to low and cook covered for 15-20 minutes.
5. While the quinoa cooks, make the falafel.
6. Drain the chickpeas, and use a food processor to grind them together with spices, cilantro, parsley, onion and garlic until a course paste is achieved.
7. Fold in by hand sesame seeds and baking powder.
8. Batter will be bright green and can be refrigerated until you're ready to fry.
9. When you are ready to fry, mix in baking powder (this step is key to preventing the falafels from falling apart when they fry).
10. Fry 1/3 cup sized falafel balls in hot oil for 3-4 minutes. Fry 2-3 falafels at a time (do not crowd pan). Allow falafels to rest on paper towel. 
11. Remove quinoa mixture from heat and let rest for 10 minutes.
12. Fluff quinoa with a fork, and mix in 1/2 to 1 cup of finely chopped fresh dill.
13. Top with lemon juice and a sprinkling of sea salt.
14. Serve with pomegranate seeds and tahini dressing (tahini paste thinned out with water and a little lemon juice) and top with hot falafel. 

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