Fawafels!

Quick Pumpkin Update: This week, I made 3 pumpkin dishes. On Wednesday, I ate all three for each meal: pumpkin rice porridge for breakfast, pumpkin hummus for lunch, and pumpkin lasagne for dinner.

Fawafels (f/əwa:fəl/: a Lebanese inspired dish consisting of waffels and falafels)

Downtown Ottawa is sprinkled with Shawarma shops. Being inducted into the shawarma lifestyle is an important part of high school initiation. A seasoned high school student should be competent with the following unwritten rules:

1. One should always be able to find the nearest shawarma shop… even blindfolded.   

2. When handed a foil-wrapped shawarma, one should know the top from the bottom. Furthermore, one should know how to unwrap the foil. 

3. Upon completion of eating the shawarma, there should be a limited garlicky mess residing in the foil.

4. One should know the owner’s first name of their favourite shawarma shop.

5. One should never discriminate against those with shawarma breath. 

A real shawarma is not vegetarian friendly. Fortunately for me, there’s a close alternative: falafel wraps. The first time I was served falafels, my mother was ecstatic to watch me gobble down a foreign meal complaint free. 

“Kerry, you must love falafels!” my mother remarked as she replaced my crumb-inhabited plate with my dessert.

“No Mom, they’re disgusting. I just want my dessert”, eight-year old me replied.

Naomi, the witty creator of the word "fawafel". 

The next time she served falafels, fourteen-year-old-me ate them complaint free and with enjoyment.  

Although I had remembered that moment years before, I had not remembered falafels being the culprit of my disgust. I had a hard time believing my mother when she told me it was these chickpea-balls-of-delicious I regarded with such distaste.

Nevertheless, I now love falafels. And today’s waffles take a spin on the popular Lebanese cuisine, that has monopolized downtown Ottawa. I’m calling them, “Fawafels” — a term first coined in 2012, by my brilliant roommate.

Garlic-Tahini Waffles with Quinoa Flour

 

½ cup quinoa flour

1 cup all purpose

1 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

1 ¼ cups milk

1 egg

2 tbsp tahini

3 large cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

Have your roommate mince the garlic. Combine the dry ingredients (including the garlic). Blend the wet ingredients until frothy and tahini is completely combined. Add wet over dry and combine. Stir in olive oil.

Serve with falafels, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions and any yogurt or sour cream based sauce (I did sour cream, lemon juice, and tahini).

Notes on recipe: The consistency of these waffles were perfect: completely crisp! The quinoa flour makes these extra savoury for sandwich wraps.