Aubergine falafel wrap with yogurt sauce

I fondly remember the years I worked in a falafel shop on the Rambla in Barcelona. Can you believe that frying falafel balls and chips when it's over 30ºC outside, serving masses of tourists, can be a good memory? It's true that sometimes I started to hate humanity as a whole, pushing my way to work through a mass of people who, unlike me, were on holiday, busy taking selfies, drinking sangria and wearing Mexican sombreros that for some strange reason that still escapes me, they associate with Spain and that the souvenir shops are responsible for supplying.

But once in the tiny space, without putting up any useless resistance by letting myself be impregnated with the smell of grease, playing music at full volume that helped me turn each routine movement into a kind of dance between tongs, pitas and potatoes, I was at ease. Add to that the fact that among my coworkers we were like a big family, links always well greased with sunflower oil, we identified each other by this penetrating smell and after eight or nine hours of work we still hadn't tired of each other so much that we didn't have the desire to share a beer on the hot Barcelona nights, at 3 in the morning when we came out from behind the apron.

And the Rambla, apart from hosting the mass of tourists with a somewhat uniform behaviour, also gives rise to madness, especially at night. And so I remember being in the shop, listening to the Beatles, with no customers, when a girl came in, grabbed a chair as an imaginary guitar, started dancing around the shop, climbing up onto the bar before our incredulous, expectant and amused eyes, only to put the chair back in its place and leave without another glance as soon as the song was over.

But even though I had held on to this job for several years, I quickly grew tired of eating the same old falafel that smelled like it on my skin after every shift. It wasn't until about two years after I left this job for a research fellowship at university that I felt like trying one again.

However, wrapping up tasty vegetable meatballs with fresh vegetables and a delicious sauce is something I could never get tired of. Eating a wrap like this, with your fingers, is a celebration of life and the senses. And here is the recipe for a good one. Roasted eggplant and mushrooms give an intense flavour to the balls (without being fried, in the Le Creuset non-stick pan they can be made with very little oil, without sticking), and wrapped in a homemade tortilla and with a good portion of a fresh yogurt sauce with cucumber, herbs and lemon, you won't want to stop eating.

Le Creuset non-stick frying pan , Le Creuset wooden mill , De Buyer cast iron skillet

Grades

• Here I am giving you 3 recipes in one, feel free to make them separately: you can accompany the meatballs with salad instead of eating them falafel style, you can fill the tortillas in the form of a quesadilla or use the sauce to accompany whatever you like. Let your imagination run wild and let us know in the comments.
• You can also buy wheat tortillas if you don't feel like making a laborious meal.
• The recipe makes a lot of meatballs, you can store them in the fridge or freeze the leftovers.
• This is an ideal recipe for batch cooking. Apart from having leftover meatballs, you can prepare more rice for the next meal. You can also make more roasted eggplant and mushrooms to use later.

Ingredients

For the tortillas (wraps):

• 285g (2 cups) wheat flour + more for rolling out
• 12g fresh yeast or half a packet of dry yeast
• ½ tablespoon of baking powder (baking powder)
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup Greek yogurt
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

For the “meatballs”:

• 1 cup cooked brown or semi-brown rice
• 1 cup cooked chickpeas
• 1 large eggplant or two small ones
• 1 Tray (about 300g) of mushrooms
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• A handful of parsley
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons olive oil + more for frying
• 180g feta cheese
• Salt and pepper

For the sauce:

• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• The zest and a tablespoon of juice of an organic lemon
• ½ grated cucumber
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup
• 1 handful of fresh mint and basil (you can substitute with parsley or cilantro)
• Salt and pepper

To accompany:

• Avocado
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Pepina

Kitchen Craft meatball tongs , Pallarés cast iron knife and Luigi Bormioli seasoning oil cruet

Elaboration

1. Start with the tortilla dough . Put the flour in a bowl , add the salt and baking powder and mix.
2. Make a mold in the middle and add the yeast, yogurt and water.
3. Mix carefully with a cooking spoon or spatula , then use your hands to knead.
4. Add the oil and continue kneading until you obtain a homogeneous and elastic ball.
5. Let the dough rest for at least 1 hour (and a maximum of 12-18 hours) in the fridge. The dough will rise just as much, but it is more stable and easier to work with when it comes out of the fridge.
6. Meanwhile, prepare the meatball dough . Preheat the oven to grill mode.
7. Cut the aubergine into 1cm cubes, clean and cut the mushrooms into 4 pieces. Place both together with the unpeeled garlic cloves on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast the vegetables for 15-18min until golden.
8. Add the roasted vegetables (peeling the garlic) and the rest of the ingredients, except the feta cheese, to a food processor. Pulse a few times, but be careful, we want to preserve texture.
9. Pour the meatball mixture into a bowl and add the feta cheese, breaking it into small pieces with your hands.
10. Shape the meatballs. You can do this with a spoon and your hands, but if you want them perfectly shaped and uniform in size, I recommend the kitchen craft meatball tongs . Keep a bowl of water nearby and soak the tongs after each meatball to prevent the dough from sticking.
11. Now, before frying (or while baking) the meatballs, I recommend preparing the sauce. Grate the cucumber and put it in a bowl with the yogurt, lemon zest and juice, syrup, salt and pepper. Chop the herbs finely and add them.
12. Prepare the tortillas. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and take it out of the bowl. Cut it into 6 equal pieces and form even balls by placing your hand on top, pressing gently with the back of your palm, using circular movements.
13. Sprinkle the work surface with plenty of flour and place one of the dough balls on top. Turn it over so that it is floured on both sides. Roll out the dough into a round shape with a rolling pin, making sure that there is enough flour so that the dough does not stick (as this can cause it to become deformed). They should be so thin that they are almost translucent (about 28cm in diameter). Repeat until they are all ready.
14. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Carefully place the tortilla in. Flip it over when it starts to get brown spots (about 2 minutes) and repeat on the other side. Remove from the pan and cook the next one. Store the finished tortillas in a clean, slightly damp kitchen towel to keep them elastic.
15. Now it's time to fry the meatballs. Heat a non-stick frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat.
16. Carefully place the meatballs one by one and turn them continuously to maintain their round shape, until they develop a golden crust.
17. Prepare a plate with slices of avocado, tomato, cucumber and lettuce leaves (you can also use nectarines or peaches instead of tomato, you can add onion, etc.)

Now you have everything ready to prepare some delicious wraps!

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