Amber's Awesome Falafel

1. Rinse the garbanzo beans under cold water and discard any bad ones. Place in a large pot, and cover with water. Let soak 24 hours, and rinse again. Place the garbanzo beans, onion, and potato in the bowl of a food processor. Cover, and process until finely chopped.
2. Leaving about 1 cup of the garbanzo bean mixture in the food processor bowl, pour the rest into a mixing bowl. Add the garlic, cilantro, coriander, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to the garbanzo bean mixture in the food processor bowl; process on low to blend thoroughly.
3. Return the reserved garbanzo bean mixture to the food processor bowl, and add the lemon juice, and olive oil; process on low into a coarse meal. Cover, and refrigerate 2 hours. The falafel won't stay together when fried unless it sits in the fridge so don't skip this step!
4. When ready to prepare, pour the oil into a wok 1 to 2 inches deep, and heat over medium-high heat. Stir the flour and baking soda into the garbanzo bean mixture until evenly blended. Using damp hands, form the mixture into 1 1/2 inch diameter balls.
5. Cook the falafel balls, turning so all sides are evenly browned, about 5 minutes. Remove falafel from oil, and drain on paper towels. Repeat to cook remaining falafel balls.
Serve in pita bread with lettuce, tomato, and tzatziki (like the Simple Vegan Tzatziki from this site). Delicious!What I like about it is that it uses dried and not canned garbanzos and doesn't take a lot of effort to make. Substitute herbs of your choice for a more authentic taste and increase or decrease the other herbs to your liking. I just happen to love cilantro, but you may want to use parsley instead. You may be tempted to add more flour if it is too wet or more water if it is too dry, but don't. The potato acts as a starch and will hold it altogether. You should be able to form the falafel balls and they should be moist and will hold their shape slightly, but they won't be dry in texture. The first time I made them I thought they would never hold and did add more flour and it ruined it. By not using a lot of flour, you get the true taste of the garbanzo bean and herbs.
Source of recipe: I modified a recipe for falafel that I had a few years ago and have been using this version ever since.