Vegan-friendly falafel (and not-vegan tzatziki sauce)

These recipes are from Allrecipes.com. The falafel is vegan, but the tzatziki sauce is not. But if you wanted to make it vegan, you could just substitute soy yogurt for the dairy yogurt, easy peasy. I'm not sure how everybody else eats this stuff, but we just dip the balls in the sauce and eat them that way. Super yummy.

Falafel:
INGREDIENTS

* 1 pound dry garbanzo beans
* 1 onion, quartered
* 1 potato, peeled and quartered
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
* 1 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 cups canola oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Rinse the garbanzo beans under cold water and discard any bad ones. Place in a large pot, and cover with water. Let soak 24 hours, and rinse again.
2. Place the garbanzo beans, onion, and potato in the bowl of a food processor. Cover, and process until finely chopped. Leaving about 1 cup of the garbanzo bean mixture in the food processor bowl, pour the rest into a mixing bowl. Add the garlic, cilantro, coriander, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to the garbanzo bean mixture in the food processor bowl; process on low to blend thoroughly. Return the reserved garbanzo bean mixture to the food processor bowl, and add the lemon juice, and olive oil; process on low into a coarse meal. Cover, and refrigerate 2 hours.
3. Stir the baking soda into the garbanzo bean mixture until evenly blended. Using damp hands, form the mixture into 1 1/2 inch diameter balls.
4. Pour the canola oil into a wok 1 to 2 inches deep, and heat over medium-high heat. Cook the falafel balls, turning so all sides are evenly browned, about 5 minutes. Remove falafel from oil, and drain on paper towels. Repeat to cook remaining falafel balls.

FOOTNOTES

Cook's Tip: If you don't have time to soak the dry garbanzo beans for this recipe, substitute three 15 ounce cans of garbanzo beans, and start with Step 2.

Tzatziki sauce
INGREDIENTS

* 8 ounces plain yogurt
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
* 3 cloves pressed garlic

DIRECTIONS

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, dill and garlic. Blend thoroughly and serve.

** QB's Notes:

The sauce is better if you chill it in the fridge for an hour or so before eating. You can mix up the falafel ingredients the day before if you want to, but be warned, it will change colors. I'm not sure why. It doesn't affect the taste, but it looks different. Darker. Also, I used about twice the amount of dill in the sauce, and I ramped up the spices in the falafel. We like FLAVOR in this house. It's good the way the recipe says to do it, but if you like spicy food, feel free to play with the amounts. You can't screw it up.