I know, I know. I promised recipes for cookies, cakes, and squares. Tiny treats cut into mini Santas and reindeers, candied pecans, and Christmas cake. Of course, they're coming - the Christmas cake is soaking in dark rum as we speak. Nonetheless, I offer you this recipe, because if you're hiding in the closet trying to avoid the holiday treats while shoveling a salad in your mouth, then we're on the same page. And we've got 2 weeks left until Christmas - how are we going to do this?

As some of you may know, I like to spend time at Odd Fellows Cafe. The ritual goes like this: I walk through the door, and a dapper-looking man who is quite certainly better dressed than me greets me with a friendly 'hello'. I order the usual, a 12 oz decaf soy latte and a falafel salad, grab my table, and hunker down to work. I actually get a fair deal of writing accomplished in this humble spot. Something about the buzz of people chattering away, enjoying good food, puts me in a good place. Sometimes when I am having one-of-those-days, I like to order a couple of mimosas, although, on those days, top-notch proofreading is essential.

So about the falafel salad - it's incredibly delicious and very blog-worthy. So good that I tried to recreate it at home just so that I wouldn't have to get out of my PJ's and face the world. Sometimes I like to wear my PJ's all day. Often while I'm baking, and usually while I'm singing. And some days I just don't feel very social. On the rare occasion that Mr. H gets home from work at 8 or 9 pm, I've been known to go all day without saying a word - and I've got to admit, that's kind of weird. And even though my dog isn't a person, sometimes I catch myself having very lengthy conversations with him. Which is probably even weirder.

Without a doubt, we need to discuss this salad in further detail. In my experience, a falafel usually comes in a pita, with toppings spilling all over onto your new pants - some delicious pickled onions and sumac - and is served by a large hairy man with a lot of chest hair from the local gyro truck outside of the skeezy club in the small rural university town at 2 in the morning.

And now I find out that falafels are just as tasty without the pita and that weird hairy guy serving them up at 2 am. Who would have thought?! From past experience, falafels have mostly tasted of chickpeas and spices, a little doughy on the inside and a little crispy on the outside from frying. I have now realized that if you make your falafel using dry chickpeas soaked overnight, instead of the canned version, which are cooked, the falafel will be more crunchy. Which is how I like them. It's almost as if you are taking the delicious outside crunchy bits and scattering them throughout the falafel. These falafels are so delicious on their own, that it seems like a shame to bury them in a pita. I prefer them to be the star, showcased on top of the lettuce, with a little tomato and cucumber on the side. 

Below, I've provided a recipe for a quick and easy dressing. It's mostly a few ingredients that I had in my fridge. Feel free to use a different recipe for the dressing, tzatziki, etc. Odd Fellows does a lemony oil dressing on the salad, and then serves a side of tzatziki!