Falafel Pitta

This makes for a wicked lunch box filler.

Baking the falafel rather than frying them reduces the fat content but does not detract from the taste. Fat is not 'evil' as it is so often portrayed, however, for those athletes requiring a high calorie input, it is important to maximise efficiency of where calories are coming from in terms of relevance to optimising performance. This means that athletes should be aiming to obtain most of their calorie intake from carbohydrates and protein before increasing fat. In instances where some athletes require very high calorie intakes, it may be more practical to add fat rather than carbohydrate. This is because fat provides 5 calories more per gram than carbohydrate and thus if calorie intake is so high it may be impractical to increase carbohydrates over fat.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Falafel:

400g tin chickpeas, drained

1 lemon, zest and juice from half

1tsp. ground cumin

1tsp. ground coriander

1tsp, sumac

1/2tsp. chilli flakes

4tbsp olive oil

bunch parsley

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Beetroot Spread:

100g beetroot

50g Total 0% yogurt (or alternative)

50g tinned chickpeas, drained

Extras:

4 pitta, halved

spinach

carrots

yogurt

Method:

1). Preheat the oven to 200C.

2). Blitz all the ingredients for the falafel in a food processor until combined. I like to leave the mixture quite coarse as that is my preference but blitz it until it is to your desired smoothness.

3). Form into 8 balls and place not a baking sheet. Pop into the oven for approx 30 mins. You will need to keep an eye on them and they may need to be flipped once during cooking - do note that they are very delicate so be careful if moving.

4). Meanwhile, put everything for the beetroot spread into a food processor or blender and blitz until smooth.

5). Once the falafel are cooked, you can assemble the pittas.

6). Enjoy!

Nutritional Composition (per serving):

Energy (kcal): 410

Fat (g): 16

Saturates (g): 2.5

Carbohydrates (g): 49

Sugars (g): 4.2

Protein (g): 13

The Sports Chef