Vegan inspiration: Chestnut-falafel made by HUBERTUS Alpin Lodge & Spa

by Lynn, on October 5th, 2018

Green can be so colorful – and is healthy! Feel inspired to cook without using animal products. Today’s recipe shows eating vegan does not mean renounce, but rather leads to surprising taste experiences. The recipe is from Kristian Knölke, chef at the HUBERTUS Alpin Lodge & Spa in the Allgäu. He creates wonderful dishes without mountain cheese and bacon, fitting the lodge’s holistic and Ayurvedic philosophy. Today, we prepare Baked Chestnut-falafel with Wild cranberry-fig-chutney and Pumpkin-ginger-mousseline. It’s up to you whether you cook the dish because you want to avoid animal products, or because it is unbelievable delicious 🙂 Well, our mouths are watering already!

Kristallstube in der HUBERTUS Alpin Lodge & Spa © Günter Standl — Enjoy the vegan dishes at HUBERTUS Alpin Lodge & Spa in one the parlors: here, in the crystal parlor. © Günter Standl

You need for…

1. The falafel

100 g dried chickpeas
50 g chestnut, cooked and peeled
½ bunch of fresh parsley
1 branch of fresh coriander
2 shallots, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp baking soda
salt, lemon pepper, cumin
rapeseed oil

2. The chutney

100 g fresh cranberries
4 dried figs
50 g sugar
5 g ginger
corn starch
salt, orange pepper

3. The mousseline

500 g Hokkaido pumpkin, without seeds
30 g of peeled ginger
cinnamon, salt, pepper
orange juice

Preparation:

1. Chestnut falafel

1) Soak the chickpeas in cold water for a day. After soaking, drain the water and rinse the chickpeas with cold water. 2) The cooked and peeled chestnuts are roasted in the oven for 20 minutes at 130° C. Let them cool down completely. (You need the oven again later – the pumpkin from point 3 and the chestnuts can be prepared together and you can save electricity) 3) Next, the chickpeas and chestnuts are then crushed together in the kitchen machine. 4) Now, add the herbs, shallots, garlic, and baking soda and mash everything to a firm puree. 5) Season how you like it. 6) Now heat the rapeseed oil in a frying pan to 180° C. 7) Shaped to small balls, you can now bake the falafel in the oil.

2. Wild Cranberry-fig-chutney

1) Wash the wild cranberries first, then beat them cold with sugar and drain them over a bowl (you’ll need the drained stock later!). 2) Cut the dried figs and the ginger into small cubes. 3) Now sweat the ginger cubes together with the pepper; then add the drained cranberry-stock. 4) Mix the corn starch with water and pour it into the stock. 5) Now add the wild cranberries and fig cubes and store them cold after seasoning.

3. Pumpkin-ginger-mousseline

1) Cut the pumpkin into roughly equal pieces. 2) Chop the ginger coarsely. 3) Bake the two ingredients together in the oven for about 30 minutes at 130° C. 4) Then, mash the pumpkin and ginger with orange juice and season with cinnamon, salt, and pepper.

Enjoy your meal!

P.S.: Stay tuned, you’ll find more vegan recipes here in the next weeks!