Baked Beetroot Falafel

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C / 390°F fan and line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Peel and roughly chop the beetroot, onion and garlic and transfer to a food processor. Then drain, rinse and pat dry the chickpeas and transfer to the food processor along with the parsley (large stalks removed), walnuts, breadcrumbs, zest from the lemon half, cumin, pinches of salt and pepper and 2 tsp of olive oil. Pulse the ingredients a few times until they have broken down and the mixture holds but is still quite rough.
3. Take a small handful of the falafel mixture and compress it into a ball roughly the size of a golf ball, then transfer to the baking tray. Repeat this step until all of the falafel mixture has been used up and pressed into balls. You should be left with 15 or so falafel balls. Bake for 25 minutes.
4. Meanwhile heat the pittas in the oven or in the toaster until warm. Next slice the cucumber, tomato and red onion. Then slice open the pittas on one side and fill with a spread of hummus, a handful of mixed leaves and slices of cucumber, tomato and red onion. Remove the falafels from the oven and place 3 in each pitta. Serve with a drizzle of chilli sauce and vegan yoghurt.