Sweet Potato Falafel

I had a few friends over for dinner after what was supposed to be a day of climbing, but unfortunately the weather got the best of us. We had a delicious mediterranean feast of olives, homemade hummus, pita, sweet potato falafel, homemade taziki and salad. For everyone who is skeptical of having a meal with no meat, I promise you will not miss the meat on this plate! I adapted this recipe from 101 Cookbooks.

Sweet Potato Falafel

Servings: 8

Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 3 hours

Ingredients
3 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (about 2 medium potatoes)
1 T cumin
1 T ground coriander
1 T sesame seeds, plus more for sprinkling
2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
juice of one lemon
3 cloves of garlic, diced
1/4 fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1 1/3 cup chickpea flour

Directions
To cook sweet potatoes, pierce with a fork and place in an oven at 425F for 60 minutes. Let cool some before peeling. Place sweet potatoes in a medium bowl and mash until smooth. Add all the spices, sesame seeds, lemon, garlic and cilantro, mix throughly. Taste and adjust spices accordingly and note that they will mellow out when the chickpea flour is added. Add 1 cup of the chickpea flour and check the consistency. The dough should be sticky but not wet. Add up to another 1/3 cup of chickpea flour and if it is still too wet place in the fridge or freezer for 20 minutes. Reheat the oven to 375F. Roll the dough in to 1 inch balls and place on two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and place in oven for 45 minutes or until the outside is crisp and the inside is moist but not sticky. The balls should easily come off of the parchment paper when they are done. Serve with pita, a salad, hummus and taziki.