Baked Butternut Squash Falafel with Maple Tahini Sauce
Baked butternut squash falafel with maple tahini sauce are a fun and delicious way to use chickpeas! The falafel balls are perfect for topping a salad with, spaghetti squash or simply eating as a side!
Ingredients
For the butternut squash falafel:
- 1/2 cup oat flour
- 3 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 cup cooked butternut squash*
- 1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup parsley leaves stemmed
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 1 tsp. onion powder
- 2 tsp. ground coriander
- 2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp. turmeric
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- For the maple tahini sauce:
- 1/2 cup tahini
- 2 tbsp. pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup lemon juice from 1-2 lemons
- water to thin about 2 tbsp.
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- Add chickpeas, garlic and cooked or steamed butternut squash to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse just a few times until you get a chunky mixture. You do not want to fully puree the mixture! Just a couple pulses should leave it chunky.
- Transfer mixture into a bowl and add cumin, coriander, onion powder, turmeric and salt and pepper along with the roughly chopped parsley. Add the lemon juice and stir together to combine.
- Use a cookie scoop to portion into balls on the baking sheet.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
- While the falafels bake, combine all of the ingredients for the maple tahini sauce. Sauce should be thin enough to use as a drizzle, but not super watery! Add more water as necessary to thin it out.
- Remove falafel from oven, let cool slightly and drizzle with maple tahini sauce.
Notes
* I steamed a bag of cubed butternut squash which worked great in this recipe, however you can definitely roast cube butternut squash in the oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes tossed in a tbsp. of avocado oil.