How to Make Falafel- Falafel Recipe

Falafel is a Middle Eastern healthy and wholesome snack of Egyptian origin prepared from ground chickpeas alongwith various herbs, onion, garlic and spices served hot with hummus or Tahini (sesame paste).

This makes one of the best Iftar snack because of its taste, flavour and wholesome quality.

Traditionally Falafel is deep fried ball or flattened patty prepared from ground chickpeas and spices but many healthy variations like baked ones and addition of different vegetables and flavours are also there.

Recipe of Falafel

Ingredients for Falafel

• 2 cups dry chickpeas – you must start with dry, do NOT substitute canned
• 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 tbsp flour or chickpea flour
• 1 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• Vegetable oil for frying

How to make Falafel

1. Wash and soak chickpeas for overnight. They will double in size as they soak.
2. Drain and rinse the chickpeas well.
3. Pour them into your food processor along with the chopped onion, garlic cloves, coriander, flour or chickpea flour (use chickpea flour to make gluten free), salt, cumin, ground coriander, black pepper, red chilli powder
4. Pulse all ingredients together until a rough, coarse mix forms. Scrape the sides of the processor periodically and push the mixture down the sides. Process till the mixture is between the texture of couscous and a paste.
5. Once the mixture reaches the desired consistency, pour it out into a bowl and use a fork to stir; this will make the texture more even throughout. Remove any large chickpea chunks that the processor missed.
6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
7. Fill a wok/skillet with vegetable oil to a depth of 1 ½ inches. Heat the oil over medium heat.
8. Meanwhile, form falafel mixture into round balls or patties using wet hand. The balls will stick together loosely at first, but will bind nicely once they begin to fry. You can add chickpea flour to the mixture for better binding.
9. When the oil is at the right temperature, fry the falafels in batches of 5-6 at a time till golden brown on both sides.
10. Once the falafels are fried, remove them from the oil on paper towels.
11. Serve the falafels fresh and hot; they go best with a plate of hummus and topped with creamy tahini sauce.

Recipe Tips:

• If your Falafel is too hard/too crunchy on the outside, there are two possible reasons– 1) you didn’t process the mixture enough– return the chickpea mixture to the processor to make it more paste-like. 2) the chickpeas you used were old. Try buying a fresher batch of dried chickpeas next time.
• The falafel balls can be frozen and can be used after few days also.
• This healthy falafel recipe goes well with Tahini sauce( sesame sauce) but can also be served with chutney or ketchup.