Tried and tested: BBC Good Food beetroot falafel

I've recently been loving beetroot, and today I woke up with inspiration to turn the beets I had in the fridge into beetroot falafel. Courtesy of BBC Good Food, I found a recipe that I could do without having to pop to the shop. I had 250g beetroot available so I halved the recipe. Here's what I did.

250g raw beetroot, peeled and grated
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 egg (should have been half an egg but who's got time for that)
50g breadcrumbs (I toasted the end off a frozen loaf before whizzing to crumbs, one slice was exactly the right amount)
400g can of chick peas
1 tsp peanut butter (supposed to be tahini but I don't have any)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. I chopped the onion and put it on to fry in the olive oil. I did this as gently as I could to just soften the onions and to buy myself some grating time...
2. I grated the beetroot on a box grater. Took ages and was incredibly messy. But fun.
3. I added cumin to the frying onions, and continued to fry it off for a further minute.
4. My breadcrumbs were already in the mixer where I'd used the blade to create them, so on top of the breadcrumbs I added the chick peas, peanut butter, egg, onion and cumin mix and then two thirds of the beetroot.
5. Next came whizzing time. This took forever - I think because my mixer isn't designed for such hardcore work and I perhaps should have split the batch into two. I blended until it came to a paste (with lots of poking to get it there).
6. I put the remaining beetroot in a big mixing bow, then added the paste and stirred together.
7. The mixture was very wet, so with moist hands I rolled out little falafel sized balls and placed them on a baking sheet lined with parchment. The recipe said it made 10 (as I had halved it) but I ended up with 14.
8. Last thing to do was to grease the tops of the falafel - which I did by spraying Fry-Light on to each one. Simple and easy and cleaner and making another utensil bright pink.
9. The falafel then went into the oven on 180 degrees (fan oven) and I sat patiently until they looked done, which was about 30 minutes.

I was a little disappointed when they came out of the oven, I expected them to be slightly golden which they weren't. Next time I might try shallow frying them. However, I've done a taste test and they're super; really earthy like all good beetroot based things should be, and delicately spiced. Next time I would add more cumin but I am rather partial to it.

Right, I'm off back downstairs to partake in a couple more. There are 14, after all.