A few months back, NPR was featuring "Recession Meals", or meals that could be made for $10 or less. Ever since then, I've been figuring the cost of every meal I make in my head. The cheapest by far is breakfast: oatmeal and eggs. The most expensive: King Yukon Salmon dinner with a brown rice and veggie pilaf. Funny thing is, I think Ana liked them equally.
Tonight, I made what I think is both my best and least expensive meal: falafel in pita bread with tsatsiki sauce.
The breakdown:
Now that the garden is giving her bounty, the tomatoes, parsley and cucumbers were free.
Flour for the pita: 50 cents
garbanzo beans: 75 cents
yogurt: 30 cents
And of course all the spices and the trace olive oil. I don't know how I could break down those expenses, so I'll just say 75 cents and call it good.
That makes the meal $2.30 to feed four adults (or 2 adults, one toddler and one teether with tons of leftovers). Does it get any cheaper than that?
Not to mention tasty!
Here's the recipe so you can be cheap and tasty too.
For the falafal (I got this from the Moosewood Cookbook):
Ingredients
4 cups of cooked chick peas (or 2 15-oz cans)
4 medium cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup finely minced onion
1/4 cup minced parsley
1/4 cup water
1 Tbs. lemon juice
a few dashes of cayenne
1/3 cup flour
oil for frying
First, if you are using dried chick peas like I did (much cheaper) soak 2 cups of them overnight. The next day place them in a pot with plenty of water (say 2 quarts) and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat to an active simmer (medium) and simmer for about an hour, or until tender. If using canned, skip this step (der).
Combine all ingredients exept flour and mash them all together with a potato masher or fork. Or a food processor if you're that lucky to have one.
Here's what it'll look like.
Then, add your flour and stir again. At this point, you can refridgerate the dough up to a few days until you're ready to make it.
When you're ready to make it, you can either fry them (crispy and delicious) or you can bake them (also delicious, but not going to be crispy).
To fry, simply pour a small amount of oil in a cast iron pan and heat to medium high. Form 2-inch balls of falafel. When you place them in the pan, flatten them a bit so they're like little pancakes. Fry for around 5 or 6 minutes on each side, or until they're golden brown. Drain on a paper towel lined plate.
To bake, form little 3 inch wide, 1/2 inch thick pancakes and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes at 375, flipping them over half way through.
For the Tsatsiki:
Grate one cucumber and squeeze out the juice. Place the cucumber "pulp" into a bowl and combine with 1/2 cup plain yogurt and 1 clove of minced garlic. Stir this all up and add a pinch of salt to taste.
For the Pita:
Ingredients:
3 cups and 1/4 cup flour (white, wheat or a combo)
1 1/4 cups of warm water
2 t. salt
2 t. instant yeast
2 Tbs. olive oil
in a bowl, whisk together the flour and the yeast. Add the salt and whisk again. Add water and olive oil and stir until it forms a dough. Knead the dough for five minutes, adding a little flour if necessary. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes. This allows the dough to become less sticky and easier to work with. Knead for another 5-10 minutes, or until the dough has become smooth and sticky to the touch. If it's dry and tough, knead in a little water. Add a little flour if it's too sticky.
Cover the dough and let it double in size, it will take about an hour.
Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Form each piece into a ball and flatten into a disc. Let it rest for 10 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 475.
Roll out each disk until it's about 1/4 inch thick. Let it rest again for 10 minutes.
Working in batches place each pita into the oven either onto a ovenstone, or on a baking sheet. I do a baking stone and can get 3 pitas on it at a time. The stone heats up with the oven, and I just throw the dough right on it while it's in the oven. If you use a cookie sheet, you don't need to heat it up with the oven.
Let the dough bake for about 2-3 minutes or until it's all puffed up like a balloon. Remove it quickly and throw in your next few pitas.
You will never eat store bought pita again!
Dan likes to stuff his pita with tomatoes, cukes, and falafel and then smother it all with the tsatsiki sauce. I, on the other hand, like to be dainty and neat. So, I eat each thing seperately and with a fork. Either way, it rocks.
Full disclosure: this is kind of a time concentrated meal, that is, it takes a while to get everything together. After the chick peas are cooked and ready, the falafal really only takes about 40 minutes until it's ready. But the pita takes about 2 hours including rising time. So, just know it's not like throwing a Red Baron's into the oven. Usually, to get this kind of meal made, I have to do it while Toby is taking a good snooze and I have Ana make it with me (ie make a really big mess). But it's worth it.
