My daughter was having her two new besties over for a sleepover (in fact, the sleepover is still ongoing) and first she asked me to buy fries for dinner. Of course, this is not the most healthy option but hey, it's a sleepover and they don't happen all the time. But then I didn't have the time to ride the bicycle into town to the shop so I suggested making falafel. She happily agreed because this dish is always a success. All my kids love it.
However, I didn't have any canned chickpeas and the dried ones I had would take 12 hours to soak.
I already had a full bag of dried pinto beans soaking in the fridge because I planned to make chili-bean soup tomorrow so I decided to take half of those beans and try a new variant of my original falafel. It turned out pretty well!

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The Recipe

I had a 1 kg bag of Pinto beans soaking, so for this recipe I used half that bag. So here we go:

1/2 kg (500 grams) of dried Pinto beans
1/2 large white onion
2 tablespoons of cumin
1 handful of fresh cilantro (coriander) finely chopped
1 lime
Some corn flour.
I usually use chickpea flour but didn't have this at this time. And before you ask: no, I don't have anything in my kitchen that can make chickpeas into chickpea flour. That's on my 'luxury items' list.

For the sauce:

4-6 cloves of garlic
Two to three tablespoons of (vegan) mayonnaise
water
(vegan) sour cream or cream (optional)
1 handful of finely chopped cilantro

For the Guacamole

2 ripe avocados
some lime juice
1 tablespoon of (vegan) mayonnaise
a little bit of ground pepper

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The Preparation

If you have a food processor, please use it. If you're like me and have to work with a blender, it works but it's a pain I tell ya.

Pinto beans don't have to soak in water but you can soak them if you like.
I usually cook them in a good amount of water for about 30 to 45 minutes, and then I let them cool in their water.

Don't throw out the water because you'll need it.

I use the blender to blend about a quarter of the beans with some of their water.
Then I keep going until I have them all done.
I personally don't mind when some beans haven't been blended in. It's kind of nice to have whole beans in the falafel.

I cut the cilantro finely, as well as the onions.
I then add both to the beans, together with the cumin seeds.
Give that a good mix. You could add garlic but I don't always do that. It depends on my mood.

Once you mixed all of that well, you will want a good consistency, so I add the corn flour (or chickpea flour, whichever you use) to it bit by bit until I can easily form balls or patties from the mixture.

Once the patties or balls are formed, you can place them in the fridge for at least half an hour to firm them up a bit.
I sometimes make enough so I can put some in the freezer for another time too.

You can fry them in olive or coconut oil (or any oil you prefer) in the pan, and this is usually what I do.
However, this time I decided to fry them in the fryer.
This was a good thing because they are done much quicker, and I needed lots.

Fry them until golden brown and then set aside.

The preparation for the garlic mayo is easy.
I just chop the garlic.
Put the mayo (and cream if you wish, I love it personally) in a bowl, add a little water to make it thinner, then add the garlic and some chopped coriander.
That's it. Done.

For the guacamole:
Crush the avocado with a fork and mash it up until smooth.
Then add garlic, lime juice, chopped coriander, and mayo. Mix it until it's smooth.

That is all.
All in all, it takes maybe an hour from preparation to the finished result for all of this so not the quickest meal but very rewarding.
That's why I like making lots so I can freeze some and then next time, it will be on the table in no time.

Another variety of how we eat it sometimes is in tortilla wraps, which is nice too.

If you're making this, let me know how it turned out!