Falafel

1.     Pour dried chickpeas into a bowl, cover with warm water and soak overnight.

2.     Preheat oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Start with the falafel mix. Into a blender, add the dried chickpeas (soaked overnight), onion, garlic, and coriander, a large handful of parsley (reserve a handful for the salad), flour, cumin and cayenne pepper.

3.     Season with salt and pepper.

4.     Pulse the mixture in the blender. You want the texture of the mix to be rough so don’t overdo it. 3-5 second pulses should do the trick.

5.     Check the falafel mixture can stick in a ball. If it is too loose, just add a bit more flour.

6.     Once you are able to stick the mixture together, make little discs, around 4cm wide and 3cm deep. Line up the discs on a sheet of baking paper, and put them in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up. The mixture should make about 20 discs.

7.     Line a baking tray with baking paper, and place your falafel on the paper.

8.     Drizzle lightly with olive oil on one side, and then turn over the falafel and drizzle olive oil on the other side. Pat in the oil with your fingers, and then place in the oven for 30 minutes, flipping the falafel after 20 minutes.

Salad

1.     Put the tomatoes into a bowl, then add the cucumber.

2.     Add a handful of chopped mint, a handful of chopped parsley, the juice of a lemon, salt, pepper, olive oil. Mix everything together and set aside.

Assembly

1.     Warm your pittas. Layer one side with a generous helping of hummus.

2.     Spoon in some of the salad. Then, take your baked falafels and break them into the pittas – squeeze in 4 or 5 discs into each one.

3.     Put some pickled green chillies on top, then spoon over a bit more hummus.