What is Falafel?
Falafel is a classic Middle Eastern & Mediterranean street food often served with Hummus or Tahina / Tahini. These delicious balls of are made of chickpeas and goodness of fresh herbs which can be used in wraps, pitas, salads or wrapped sandwiches.
I’ve had my taste of them and enjoyed snacking on these during my stay in the Middle East and learnt the secret behind the best falafel is fresh herbs and tinge of lemon juice. It tastes like a vegetarian meatball and it’s kind of grainy and for me it tastes best with fresh Tahini, however, one can chose their favourite dip. You may also want to check my recipe for the classic Mediterranean Tzatziki Cream Cheese Sauce | Tzatziki Sauce | Tzatziki Dip
What are the different ways of making Falafel?
Falafel is usually deep fried, however the other ways to prepare it by shallow frying or simply baking it. I have shared all three methods below. The mixture is fragile hence, you need to make sure the balls or patty you prepare from the mixture don’t break. Once, you prepare the mixture, you can store a batch in the freezer for a good two months, thaw it in the fridge before use and fry it.
In Egypt, Falafel is made with a combination of chickpeas and fava beans. This recipe shows you how to make them from chickpeas and fresh herbs. My secret to make them soft and spongy from inside is to add little baking soda to the falafel mixture.
Falafel Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpeas soaked over night
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 small onion roughly chopped
- 1 cup coriander roughly chopped
- 1 cup fresh parsley roughly chopped
- 2 small green chillies
- 1 tsp black pepper powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp Salt or per taste
- 2 tbsp chick pea flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- Oil for frying
Method
- Wash and soak the dried chickpeas in water overnight. Make sure the water covers the chickpeas by at least 3 inches, as they’ll double in size.
- Next morning, drain and rinse the chickpeas and add them to your food processor, along with all other ingredients except chickpea flour and baking soda.
- Pulse the food processor several times until the texture of the mixture is coarse.
- Transfer this mixture to a bowl and add the chickpea flour and baking soda.
- Mix everything well. If the mixture is too wet, add some chickpea flour and if it is too dry add few drops of lemon juice or a tsp or water.
- Form this mixture in round balls using an ice cream scoop or falafel scoop. You may also use your hands by applying some water or oil to make sure the mixture doesn’t stick.
- Once the falafels are formed, you can cook them by your preferred method either by deep frying, shallow frying or baking them.
- If deep frying, heat oil in a pan and add the falafel balls making sure not to over crowd the pan. Fry till it gets nice crisp and golden on the outside.
- Make sure they don’t over fry or get too dark.
- Once done, remove on a kitchen absorbent and serve hot.
- Falafel goes best with Tahini or you could serve with any dip or hummus of your choice.
Other Methods
- If shallow frying, add 6-7 tbsp of oil in a non stick pan and fry till each side is crisp and golden brown flipping occasionally.
- If baking, place the falafel on a greased baking tray and bake at 180 degrees celsius for 25 minutes flipping it half way through. As all oven setting differ, you may want to check prepare as per your oven.
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