Chickpea meatballs with eggplant and cheese filling

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 250 g dough (falafel)
• ½ eggplant(s)
• 100 g feta cheese
• 50 g spring onions
• salt and pepper
• 1 liter oil, for frying
• 200 g chickpeas, dried
• 1 slice(s) of toast
• 1 onion(s)
• 4 cloves garlic
• ½ bunch parsley
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tsp cumin, ground
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp flour
• 150 g Turkish yogurt, stirred until smooth

Instructions

Working time approx. 35 minutes; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Total time approx. 12 hours 35 minutes

Place the chickpeas in a bowl and cover with plenty of cold water and let them soak for 12 hours. Then drain. Crumble the bread. Peel and roughly chop the onion and garlic. Wash the parsley and pick off the leaves. Finely chop the bread, onion, garlic, parsley, and chickpeas in a blender. Season the puree with coriander, cumin, pepper, and salt, and knead it with the flour and baking powder. Finely slice the spring onions. Cut the bottom half of the eggplant into six to seven thin, large slices. Peel or peel the rest of the eggplant and cut into small cubes. Fry the eggplant slices in plenty of vegetable oil to make crispy eggplant chips. To do this, deep-fry the slices in vegetable oil on both sides. Fry the diced eggplant in a pan until crispy. Cut the feta cheese into large cubes. Season the fried eggplant cubes with salt and pepper. Place the crumbled feta cheese, spring onions, and eggplant cubes in a bowl. Add the juice of half a lemon. Knead everything together well. If desired, you can supplement the recipe with finely diced dates or raisins at this point. Form the feta cheese, onion, and eggplant mixture into small balls in the palm of your hand. Coat the balls in falafel dough and fry everything together in 1 liter of hot vegetable oil in a saucepan or deep fryer. To do this, heat 1 liter of oil in a saucepan. The oil is hot enough when lots of bubbles rise from the handle of a wooden spoon dipped in the oil. Fry the falafel in batches for 4-5 minutes until golden brown. Drain each ball on a thick layer of kitchen paper. After draining, serve the fried falafel balls on a yogurt plate with two eggplant chips.