You Should Waffle Some Falafel Mix

Until very recently, I had never watched an entire season of the Real Housewives franchise. I had tried to get into Beverly Hills, but it did not take. For whatever reason (ennui and boredom), I decided to give Salt Lake City a try, and I am now borderline obsessed with a bunch of rich women who live in Utah.

Besides complicated feelings around organized religion, I don’t have much in common with these women, so imagine my surprise when I heard “good Mormon gone bad” Heather Gay order a falafel waffle, something that had been sitting on my to-do list for months. (One bad habit of mine is pitching an article idea, getting it approved, and then just...not doing anything with it.)

Anyway. Seeing the girls order a round of falafel waffles—which I have decided to call “fawaffles”—was the push I needed to finally make them, and they are delicious.

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If you have a recipe for homemade falafel, you are welcome to use that, but there is something satisfying about waffling a just-add-water mix. I’m sure each mix behaves a little differently between the plates, but the Trader Joe’s mix transforms into a savory waffle that’s tender on the inside and lightly crisp on the outside in under two minutes. (Each waffle also has 12 grams of protein, which is great if your New Year’s resolution involves getting swole.)

The instructions will vary slightly from brand to brand, but you want to add just enough water to get the batter scoopable, but still soft. (For the Trader Joe’s mix, that’s 1 cup of mix and 3/4 cups water, covered and rested for half an hour.)

Falafel batter is stickier than a lot of other waffled fare, so you may want to hit your waffle iron with a little oil before waffling. (Just avoid sprays that contain lecithin if your waffle maker is nonstick; it can build up on the coating overtime, making your previously nonstick waffle-maker very sticky.)

Heat the waffle iron to medium and give both plates a spritz of oil. Once it’s hot, place 1/2 cup of batter in the center of the waffle iron, and press down firmly. Let cook for 1 1/2-2 minutes, until the fawaffle releases easily from the grates. (You can use a chopstick to help coax it onto a spatula.)

Serve with an egg for a protein-packed breakfast, or with the usual falafel accoutrement. (I was out of tzatziki when I made mine, so I used sour cream. It was pretty good but would have been better with tzatziki.)