Falafel
Falafel is serious business, this is a dish that you can use to impress all of your meathead friends. The recipe might seem intimidating, but it's not! All you'll be doing is blending everything in a food processor and then frying!
Making good falafel absolutely requires soaked beans, I have made some with canned beans before to see the difference and the texture was horrible. Do NOT use canned beans, I warned you! After you make this recipe you'll probably find that you REALLY like falafel and you'll be willing to put the time in to remember to soak the beans. Also, only use fresh parsley (not dried). A little time saver for this is to always keep the chickpea mixture form step 8 in the freezer. That way when you want to make falafel, you just transfer that from the freezer to the fridge the night before and then you are ready to go. Just remember to only add the baking soda until right before you cook them.
I will be updating this with falafel storage tips and methods for using less oil when cooking! I will announce these updates on my Instagram, follow me there so that you don't miss a beat.
Link: Instagram.com/food.health.fit
Time to slay...
Ingredients
- 1 lb. (16 oz) chickpeas, soaked 24 hrs - Do NOT use canned beans, they do not make good falafel.
- 1/2 bunch fresh parsley - must be fresh parsley (flat or curly both work)
- 1/2 large yellow sweet onion
- 4-5 cloves garlic
- 1 and 3/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper
- 2 and 1/2 tsp. cumin
- 1 tsp. ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika (optional)
- 1 1/2 tbsp. flour - chickpea and oat flour also work
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- Grapeseed oil - peanut, safflower, and canola also work well
- Check the notes at the bottom for optional add-ins
Tahini Sauce
- 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 2 tbsp. tahini
- Pinch of salt, to taste
- Water
For Serving
- Pita
- Green leaf lettuce
- Chopped parsley
- Tomatoes
Other topping ideas include: Cucumbers, pickles, hummus, roasted eggplant or baba ghanoush, tabouli, olives, red cabbage... the possibilities are endless!
Ideally for this recipe you will use a food processor. You should be able to make a blender work with the right technique too. If don't have either, I have never tried to break the chickpeas down the hand before, but you could try using a potato masher!
Directions
- Soak dried chickpeas in water, in a covered bowl, on the countertop for 24 hours. There should be at least a inch of water above the beans.
- Drain and rinse chickpeas.
- Add the chickpeas to a food processor and grind into a coarse meal. You may want to do this in two batches unless you have a huge food processor.
- Transfer this mixture to a large bowl.
- Remove the stems from the parsley, do not worry about removing all of the stems just cut away the long part of the stems.
- Roughly chop the parsley, garlic, onion and add them to the food processor. Blend this into a puree.
- Add this mixture to your bowl with the chickpeas.
- Add all of the remaining spices (salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, smoked paprika) and the flour to the bowl. Mix thoroughly
- Pre-heat the oil. You will want to use a larger quantity of oil here, you want the falafels to submerge about halfway into the oil. As you cook the oil level will go down, but that is okay. Caution: If you are new to heating up this quantity of oil, increase the temperature slowly. I Find that medium-low heat is good for my stove. If you find that you need a little more heat, gently nudge it up to avoid smoking the oil. If you don't have enough oil to fill up a fry pan, use a medium size sauce pan.
- Right before you are about to fry your falafel, add the baking soda to the mixture and mix well. (This gives them that nice fluffy, crunchy crust)
- I use a ice cream scooper so that all of my falafel are the same size, and then I flatten them into little burger shaped patties because I think they are easier to cook and eat this way. Once you become a advanced falafel maker, purchase a falafel scoop maker!
- Make sure that you have a cooling rack ready for when your hot falafel comes out of the pan.
- Add your falafel patties to the oil, do not try to move them until they begin cooking because you'll just break them apart. They should take a few minutes to brown on one side and flip with a slotted spoon, fork, or any slotted flippy thingy. Fry to a deep brown color.
- Transfer falafel to a cooling rack to cool.
- When cooled transfer to a plate with a paper towel on it to remove excess oil.
Sauce
Add lemon juice and tahini to a bowl. Whisk in water until it becomes pourable. Add salt to taste.
Serving
Warm your pita briefly in the oven or microwave (20 seconds). Add falafel and topping ingredients. Drizzle with sauce and enjoy! 🤤 I also like to eat these without the pita and I use the crispy lettuce as a "boat" to hold my falafel and toppings! 🙌
The Mediterranean eggplant dip known as baba ghanoush tastes absolutely amazing with falafel. For my baba recipe click here!
Notes: I encourage you to play with the spices in this recipe. Some spices you could add are cayenne pepper if you like heat, garam masala, and/or a pinch of ground cardamom. You may also find spice blends available that are specifically made for falafel. It is common to use fresh cilantro. Next time, try using half parsley and half cilantro and compare the flavor! Fresh green pepper is also a common add-in and gives it a nice green color.
I will be updating this with falafel storage tips and methods for using less oil when cooking! Stay tuned.
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