This is the fastest, easiest way I have found to make my favorite food, falafel, at home. This falafel recipe uses ground chickpea flour, which eliminates the need to grind up the chickpeas yourself. I have been dying to find a good falafel recipe, and I have found this recipe to be easy, fast, and tasty.
I used Bob’s Red Mill Garbonzo Bean Flour (chickpea flour), and adapted the recipe from a recipe on the back of the package. However, I used fresh parsley in this recipe and I think that it makes all the difference. To me, the dried parsley flakes aren’t strongly flavored enough, and cannot compare to fresh parsley. But if you don’t have fresh parsley on hand, you could use the dried kind. This recipe is great because I usually have all of these ingredients in the pantry, and falafel makes for a fast easy weeknight dinner, which also saves well for lunch sandwiches the next day.
For the sandwiches, I used my Croatian ajvar, homemade hummus, and quinoa tabbouleh. The combination of the roasted red peppers in the ajvar, the tahini and garlic in the hummus and the fresh parsley, lemon juice, and vegetables in the tabbouleh, all put on a whole wheat pita, made a perfect sandwich. I literally ate these sandwiches all week, and was delighted with the flavor profile each and every time.
- Here is how the mix should look, and the Bob’s Red Mill chickpea flour that I used.
- Here are the falafel in the pan, I made them spoon-sized
- The final product. Try not to burn your falafel like I did with some of them.. oops
- This is the falafel sandwich I made with ajvar, quinoa tabbouleh, and hummus.
- 1 cup Garbanzo Bean Flour
- 2 tbsp Fresh Parsley
- ¼ tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Cumin
- ½ tsp Onion Powder
- 3 tbsp Lemon juice
- ⅓ cup warm/hot water
- 2-3 tbsp Olive Oil (for frying)
- In a medium bowl, combine the chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour with the fresh minced parsley, and the other dry ingredients and seasonings.
- Mix in the lemon juice, and slowly start incorporating the warm water until the mix can be made into balls.
- Let the mix stand for 5-10 minutes.
- Heat the oil on the stove at a medium/ medium-high temperature. Use a spoon to place portions of the mix into the hot pan. Let the falafel fry on each side for about 4-5 minutes until golden brown, and cooked through.
- Place the finished falafel on a paper towel to dry off some of the oil.
Falafel is one of my favorite things to eat. Im not the best cook, but your recipe helped me to be successful at making this! in love with this!!! Thanks!
Great! I make it on weeknights when I am in a crunch for time.
I made these today. Really easy to do & quick. I didn’t have onion powder, so used a finely chopped onion in oil until softened. It gave a next texture. Will be making these again!
Helen,
Great idea with the onion, somehow it’s always better to use fresh ingredients for taste and texture. I am glad you liked the recipe and thanks for sharing your ideas!
Katie
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Can I bake them instead of frying??
My husband loves falafel but hates fried stuff, so want to give it a try by baking but don’t want to go through the hassle of soaking chicpeas overnight.
Yes you can bake them! I use a similar recipe when I make falafel pie and I bake that. I would do 350F for 10-15 minutes and see how that goes.
Katie
P.S. Here is the falafel pie recipe 🙂 https://worldwidevegetarian.com/2014/09/falafel-pie/
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Great recipe, made it twice. Second time, I doubled the cumin, also added lemon zest, cayenne, garlic power and powdered coriander, which made it a lot more flavorful. As for the amount of servings, I’d say it serves two not four.
Sarah,
Thanks for your feedback! Lemon zest is a great idea, I will try this out myself! I am glad to hear these worked out well for you.
Katie
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Didn’t like it at all due to the part flaky part gummy texture and I followed the recipe. I’m shocked that anyone thought it was good. i don’t think they have had good falafel before. This is way too dense.
Beth,
If it came out too dense, I’d suggest adding more water to the batter, batters in general can be tricky and have to be played with a bit 🙂
Katie
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