Ta3meya!!!!

While at the local market last weekend, my husband and I found fresh fava beans and so I decided to get some to make falafel for us!  We usually end up using the boxed falafel mix that we get from the Middle Eastern grocery store and then adding our own spice mixes to it.  To be honest, it's never me that makes it, but usually my dad!  He's great at it and they always turn out great.  My mom always makes the tahini sauce to dip them in.  But today, I decided to give it a shot myself!  A few years back, my sister made them from scratch and gave me the recipe her mother in law gave her.  I used that recipe along with a Pinterest one I found as a guide.  Another thing that I discovered while looking up recipes and talking to my sister, was that falafel and ta3meya are NOT the same thing!  I always thought they were and usually just used the term falafel with my North American friends because I knew they would understand that.  But, I came to find out, that they are NOT the same.  Falafel is actually just made with chick peas, but the traditional dish made by Egyptians, is made only with fava beans.  Many cultures actually mix both fava beans and chickpeas to make theirs!  Who knew?!?!?!?

My husband gave today's breakfast a rating of 11 out of 10 today!  He was VERY happy with how the ta3meya turned out!

Here is the Pinterest recipe I used as a guide:
http://www.mamaslebanesekitchen.com/mezza/falafel-from-scratch/#sthash.fSSfauoS.dpbs

Now, I thought 2 tablespoons of salt was waaaaayyyy too much and so I put in 2 teaspoons of salt.  Unfortunately, this was still waaaaayyyy too much for us and so I ended up adding a canned of pureed chickpeas to the pureed fava bean mixture to even out the salt.  This worked perfectly, but I would have preferred to make this the traditional way without the chickpeas. The tahini recipe was what I followed, but I also added some olive oil, a little water, and some parsley to it!

My sister's mother in law's recipe also called for adding an egg to help bind the balls and so I did go ahead and add that too.  I found the mixture to be a little soft and had to add more flour in order to form the balls and found that flouring my hands also helped to form the balls.

To go with the Ta3meya, I made a traditional Middle Eastern salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onions, and of course, got some pita bread!

Here are some pics of my recipe today:

Completed dish for breakfast this morning!

Ta3meya fresh out of the fryer

Rolled mixture on a floured plate

Going into the deep fryer

Tahini dressing

 After mixing and adding pureed chickpeas

Herb and spice mixture over the fava bean mixture

Pureed fava beans

My little one helping me shell the fava beans!