Falafel and Cucumber Sauce

I was searching Allrecipes.com (one of my favorite recipe sites...I literally surf that website for fun...nerd alert...) and found an interesting recipe for something I have never tried or heard of before. But from looking at the ingredients, I could tell it had some potential. I had tried the cucumber sauce before and I am a huge fan. But, the cucumber sauce recipe I tried before was different from the one I found the other day so I combined the two. One of the best decisions I have made in the kitchen! I think I am going to make some again soon and just keep it on hand to go on everything. It's amazing. I hope I can remember exactly what I put in it, because I wasn't really paying attention (bad, I know). It was way fun though because Richard and I both worked on this dinner together and we had a lot of fun laughing, talking and cooking together. We decided since we both love to cook (I scored big time in the husband department) that when he has time, we will cook dinner together. It's so fun! Anyways, I really liked this dinner and Richard liked it a lot too, but it wasn't his favorite. He said it's definitely for a more refined palette! I did play around with/alter both recipes so here is my version:

Falalfel and Cucumber Sauce

Falafels:

1 (15 oz) can of garbanzo beans, drained

1 onion, chopped

4 tbsp. dried parsley

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 egg

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. salt

1 dash of pepper

1 pinch of cayenne pepper

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 c. bread crumbs

Cucumber sauce:

1 (6oz) container of plain yogurt

1/2 cucumber, peeled and grated

1 tsp. dried dill weed

1 tbsp. light mayo

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

(about) 1 tsp. of rice vinegar (this is where I was adding and didn't measure, so it's a guess)

--Preheat oven to 425 degrees

--In a small bowl add all the ingredients for the cucumber sauce and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (the longer the better...so I make this first)

--Put the garbanzo beans into a large microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Then mash them until thick and pasty; DO NOT USE A BLENDER (this is where creativity enters cooking...)! In a blender add the onions, garlic and parsley and blend until smooth. Add to the mashed garbanzo beans.

--In a small bowl combine egg, cumin, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and baking soda. Stir into the garbanzo bean mixture with the olive oil. Slowly add the bread crumbs until mixture is not sticky, but will hold together (1 c. worked for me, but I would start with less and work up in case you don't need that much). Prepare a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Form the mixture into 8 balls, place on cookie sheet and flatten into patties.

--Cook in the preheated oven for +/- 20 minutes (keep an eye on them...I think I cooked mine for a little less than 20 minutes), flip and cook for 8-10 minutes more.

--Place a falafel patty into a warmed pita, put the cucumber sauce on both sides of the patty (once in the pita)  and enjoy! I also dipped mine into the cucumber sauce with each bite...and licked the bowl...

Altered recipe from: Allrecipes.com

p.s. I know that I haven't taken any pictures for my meals, so I will be making all of them over again and adding pictures. dang it. :)