Falafel Pita Sandwich with Tahini Sauce

Ingredients

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• 12 Falafel
• ¼ cup Tahini
• ¼ cup Water
• 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 2 cloves Garlic
• ¼ tsp Paprika
• 6 Pita Bread
• 1 Lettuce
• 1 Tomato
• ½ Cucumber
• 1 Dill Pickles
• ¼ Red Onions
• 3 tsp Harissa Spice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (450°F). Place falafel on a baking sheet.
2. Bake in the preheated oven until heated through, 8 to 10 minutes.
3. While falafel bake, whisk tahini, water, lemon juice, garlic, and paprika together in a bowl.
4. Cut about 1 inch from the top of each pita to form a pocket.
5. Add 2 falafel to each pita with equal amounts lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pickle, and red onion.
6. Drizzle each with about 1 tablespoon tahini sauce and some harissa.

About the ingredients

Falafel

Middle Eastern fritter of ground soaked chickpeas (or fava beans) blended with onion, garlic, parsley, cilantro and spices (cumin, coriander), shaped and traditionally deep-fried. A composite dish, not a single ingredient; protein- and fiber-rich legumes but conventionally oil-fried, making the standard form noncanonical.

Tahini Sesamum indicum

Paste of ground (usually toasted) hulled sesame seeds—nothing but seeds. A seed butter rich in fat, protein, calcium, and iron. WFPB-canonical as named.

Water

Plain potable water (H2O). Universal solvent and culinary base, no calories or nutrients beyond trace minerals. Not derived from any organism; an unprocessed essential. WFPB canonical.

Lemon Juice Citrus limon

Lemon is the acidic tree fruit (hesperidium) of Citrus limon, a Rutaceae shrub of likely Northeast Indian origin. Eaten as fresh fruit, juice, and zest. Rich in vitamin C, citric acid, flavonoids. Whole fruit and its fresh juice are canonical WFPB foods.

Garlic Allium sativum

Garlic itself is canonical, but extract denotes a concentrated/isolated derivative outside the whole-food canon. Marketed as natural/healthy supplement, hence mistaken-as-WFPB flag.

Paprika Capsicum annuum

Ground spice made from dried, milled red peppers (Capsicum annuum), ranging sweet to hot/smoked. Whole-fruit powder, no additions. Source of vitamin A (carotenoids), vitamin E, capsaicin. Minimally processed whole-food spice, WFPB canonical.

Pita Bread Triticum aestivum

Pita bread is a leavened wheat flatbread of flour, water, yeast, and salt, baked hot so it puffs into a pocket. Usually refined white flour. A refined-flour baked product — noncanonical under WFPB.

Lettuce Lactuca sativa

Lettuce is the leafy green of Lactuca sativa, eaten raw as the plant's leaves. No processing required. Very low calorie, high water, provides vitamin K, folate, vitamin A. Whole leaf vegetable: canonical.

Tomato Solanum lycopersicum

Whole fruit of the tomato plant (botanically a berry, culinary vegetable). 'Organic' denotes a farming method, not a distinct ingredient. Raw whole fruit, rich in lycopene, vitamin C, potassium. WFPB-canonical.

Cucumber Cucumis sativus

Culinary vegetable, botanically a pepo (fruit) — hence botanical_vs_culinary_mismatch true.

Dill Pickles

Cucumbers brine-pickled with dill, salt, vinegar and garlic. Whole vegetable preserved by salt/acid fermentation or curing—analogous to sauerkraut. Salt/vinegar are preserving agents (sodium flag), not demoting additions. Canonical WFPB.

Red Onions Allium cepa

Purple-red cultivar of common onion; bulb eaten raw or cooked. Minimally processed. Anthocyanins, quercetin, organosulfur compounds, vitamin C. Whole-plant bulb — canonical WFPB.

Harissa Spice

Dry North African seasoning blend of ground dried chilies with caraway, coriander, cumin and garlic — distinct from the oil/salt-laden harissa paste. As a pure ground-spice blend with no added oil, sugar, or salt, it is canonical like garam masala.