Eggplant falafel wrap with yogurt sauce

I fondly remember the years I worked at a falafel shop on La Rambla in Barcelona. Do you find it hard to believe that frying falafel balls and potatoes when it was over 30ºC, serving hordes of tourists, can be a fond memory? It's true that sometimes I began to hate all humanity as they pushed their way to work through a mass of people who, unlike me, were on holiday, busy taking selfies, drinking sangria and wearing Mexican hats that for some strange reason I still can't explain, they associate with Spain and which the souvenir shops make sure to supply.

But once inside the tiny space, without putting up useless resistance and letting myself be soaked in the smell of grease, turning the music up loud which helped me transform every routine movement into a kind of dance between tongs, pitas and potatoes, I was happy. Add that among coworkers we were like one big family, always well-oiled links of sunflower oil, we were identified by that penetrating smell and after eight or nine hours of work we still weren't so tired of one another as to not want to share a beer on the hot Barcelona nights, at 3 a.m. when we left the other side of the apron.

And La Rambla, besides hosting the mass of tourists with somewhat uniform behavior, also breeds madness, especially at night. 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 onto the counter before our incredulous, expectant and amused eyes, only to put the chair back and leave without another glance as soon as the song was over.

But even though I had lasted several years in that job, I quickly got tired of eating the always-the-same falafel whose aroma clung to my skin after every shift. It wasn't until about two years after leaving that job for a research fellowship at the university that I wanted to try one again.

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

Le Creuset nonstick pan, Le Creuset wooden grinder, De Buyer iron skillet

Notes

• Here I'm giving you 3 recipes in one, feel free to make them separately: you can serve the balls with a salad instead of eating them like falafel, you can fill the tortillas like a quesadilla or use the sauce to accompany whatever you like. Let your imagination run free and tell us about it in the comments.
• You can also buy wheat tortillas if you don't feel like a laborious meal.
• The recipe makes a lot of balls; you can store extras in the fridge or freeze them.
• It's an ideal recipe for a bit of batch cooking. Besides having leftover balls, 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
• 12g fresh yeast or half a packet of dry yeast
• ½ tablespoon baking powder (chemical leavening)
• 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) mushrooms
• 3 garlic cloves
• 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
• Zest and 1 tablespoon juice of an organic lemon
• ½ grated cucumber
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup
• A handful of fresh mint and basil (you can substitute parsley or cilantro)
• Salt and pepper

To serve:

• Avocado
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Cucumber

Kitchen Craft meatball tongs, Pallarés iron knife and Luigi Bormioli dressing oil bottle

Method

1. Start with the dough for the tortillas. Put the flour in a bowl, add the salt and the baking powder and mix.
2. Make a well in the middle and add the yeast, the yogurt and the water.
3. Mix carefully with a cooking spoon or spatula, then use your hands to knead.
4. Add the oil and keep kneading until you obtain a smooth, elastic ball.
5. Let the dough rest for at least 1h (and a maximum of about 12-18h) in the fridge. The dough rises the same, but it's more stable and easier to work with when it comes out of the fridge.
6. Meanwhile, prepare the mixture for the balls. Preheat the oven to grill mode.
7. Cut the eggplant into 1cm dice, clean and quarter the mushrooms. Put both, along 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 browned.
8. Add the roasted vegetables (peeling the garlic) and the rest of the ingredients, except the feta, to a food processor. Pulse a few times, but carefully, we want to preserve texture.
9. Pour the mixture for the balls into a bowl and add the feta, breaking it into small pieces with your hands.
10. Shape the balls. You can do it with a spoon and your hands, but if you want perfect, uniformly sized balls, I recommend the Kitchen Craft meatball tongs. Have a bowl of water beside you and wet the tongs after each ball to prevent the mixture from sticking.
11. Now, before frying (or while you bake) the balls, I recommend preparing the sauce. Grate the cucumber and put it in a bowl with the yogurt, the lemon zest and juice, the syrup, salt and pepper. Finely chop the herbs and incorporate them.
12. Prepare the tortillas. Remove the dough from the fridge and take it out of the bowl. Cut it into 6 equal pieces and form smooth balls by placing your hand over them and pressing gently with the back of your palm, making circular motions.
13. Dust the work surface liberally with flour and place one dough ball on it. Turn it over so it's floured on both sides. Roll the dough out into a round with a rolling pin, taking care to have enough flour so the dough doesn't stick (otherwise it can deform). They should be so thin they're almost translucent (about 28cm diameter). Repeat until all are ready.
14. Heat a large pan to medium-high. Place the tortilla carefully. Turn it when it begins to have brown spots (about 2min) and repeat on the other side. Remove from the pan and cook the next one. Store the cooked tortillas in a clean, slightly damp kitchen towel so they remain pliable.
15. Now it's time to fry the balls. Heat a nonstick pan with 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat.
16. Place the balls carefully, one by one, and keep turning them continuously so they retain 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.)

You have everything ready to assemble some delicious wraps!

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