Baked bean falafel

I don’t know about you, but we always have baked beans in the cupboard so this is a great recipe if you want to try something different with them. It might sound unusual… you’re just going to have to trust me on this one!

Ingredients

For the falafel

• 4 x 400g/14oz tins baked beans
• 1 large free-range egg
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 120g/4½oz chickpea flour
• a large handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• cooking oil spray
• soft bread baps, to serve

For the sauce

• 1 garlic clove, grated
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp mayonnaise
• squeeze lemon juice
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tbsp Sriracha sauce

For the coleslaw (optional)

• 3 carrots, grated
• ½ white cabbage, finely shredded
• ½ red cabbage, finely shredded
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• reserved baked bean juice

Method

1. Drain the beans, keeping the sauce aside in a separate bowl, then rinse the beans and leave them to drain. Put the beans and egg into a blender and blend to a smooth paste.

2. Transfer to a bowl and add the garlic, onion, salt, chilli powder, cumin and coriander. Add the chickpea flour and mix everything together – it may be quite a wet mix.

3. Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7 and have a large baking tray ready, generously greased.

4. Using wet hands, create walnut-sized balls of the bean mixture and pop them on the tray. Spray them with oil all over and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, turning halfway through.

5. To make the sauce, add the garlic, salt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, parsley and Sriracha to 150g/5½oz of the drained bean sauce from the tins. Stir and set aside.

6. If you don’t want to waste the rest of the bean juice, double up the sauce ingredients to make a double batch of it. Use half of it as a dipping sauce for the falafel. If making the coleslaw, stir the other half of the bean sauce through the coleslaw ingredients listed.

7. Serve the falafels squashed inside a soft bap, smothered with the sauce and the coleslaw if you’ve made it. There is plenty here to eat and to freeze, so pop any extras into a freezer bag.

Baked bean falafel