Felafel - Baked!

I love felafel but the frozen variety available in the shops here just don't hit the spot so I make my own and freeze them.  It's fairly easy (as long as I remember to restock on dried chickpeas).

250 grms dried chickpeas
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
a combination of ground cumin and ground coriander (at least a teaspoon of each)
a couple of tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
a couple of tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander
a teaspoon of salt
2 dessert spoons of gram flour
a little water
oil for cooking (olive or sunflower)

Set your oven to 200C.  Put a couple of tablespoons of oil on a baking tray. Put the tray in the oven to heat up the oil.

I quick soak the chickpeas - which means putting your dried chickpeas into a large saucepan, covering with water, bring to the boil, boil for 5 minutes then turn off the heat and leave to soak in the water for at least an hour.
Rinse your soaked chickpeas, put them in the food processor with the roughly chopped onion, grated garlic,spices and salt.  Give it a good whiz.  Then add a tablespoon of cold water and the gram flour and mix again.  The mixture should hold together quite well now.  Shape it the mixture into small balls and place on the heated oily baking tray and cook for about ten mins, check them, turn the felafel over and cook for another 5 minutes.

If you don't cook all of your felafel, freeze the ones that you want to keep on a baking tray.When they are frozen transfer them to freezer bags.