Scrimpy cook tries: Si’s carrot and coriander falafel mix

I came across this product when I was looking for cuscus during my last shop in Asda. The packaging does its job as I saw it before I have seen anything else and was like… WHAT’S THIS? Then I looked at the price and it was at promotional price of £1 (£1.39 regular price). My thoughts about falafel are mixed, I generally really like it. The problem is when you order it it’s often either great or terrible. If you don’t cook it long enough it’s just soggy and if it’s fried too long it just becomes an overlooked stuffing ball. I have never attempted to make it myself so a product where you literally just add water sounds very appealing for a quick dinner. What is also great is that carrot and coriander is a nations favourite flavour combination so there is not a lot that can go wrong.

When you open the bag you have this dry mix that looks a lot like stuffing mix but it has shavings of dried carrot which gives it this nice contrast and smells great too.

All you have to do is to add a little bit of water, stir, leave it for 10 minutes to thicken and form little balls with your lightly floured hands. (Advice: make sure you leave it for 10 minutes. The mixture will thicken in about 2 minutes but if you speed the process up the carrot doesn’t have enough time to absorb the moisture and it stays dry.

The next step is to heat up some olive oil and shallow fry it for 5 minutes. I did 2.5 minutes on each side plus few swirly movies and they came out perfect. They cook really fast so you will really only need 5 minutes maximum.

The taste of this just add water falafel was surprisingly good! It was crunchy on the outside, nothing was burned and it was nice and soft inside. In terms of flavour you don’t need any extra seasoning everything is just right. If you are making dinner just for one you can keep the mixture already mixed with water in your fridge up to 3 days as long as it’s all tightly wrapped in cling film. I had mine on the next day and it tasted even better.

So you have your falafel but what are you going to have it with?

I have 2 serving suggestions. One is with my spicy winterslaw in a wholemeal pita. You can find the coleslaw recipe here ➡️ spicy winterslaw recipe (don’t forget to like it)

Second serving suggestion is to make a little mezze plate with flavoured cuscus, pita breads, grated carrots, chopped red cabbage, olives and hummus. I also added very simple salad of cubed tomato, cubed cucumber plus salt and pepper (less is more as my mum used to say). Additionally you can put some salad dressing out or simply extra virgin olive oil. That will not take a great deal of work and it will really wow your friends. It makes a great starter or nibbles if you have people over. What is also great is that everyone picks what they want and make a perfect pita sandwich with their favourite ingredients. When I did it there was few of us and I didn’t have a chopping board big enough so it was just all in bowls. The cost of the whole thing was about £8 for 5 people for a nice big plate for each person.

Overall I think Si’s carrot and coriander falafel mix is a great product at a great price. It opens many creative ideas for a quick, easy and low calorie dinner that can be accompanied by highly nutritious salads.

I hope you enjoyed this review and you will try this product and let me know what you think about it!