Vegan Falafel
I LOVE mediterranean/israeli food. We went to Greece for our honeymoon and it was one of our favorite places we’ve visited. Making this delicious homemade falafel and hummus made my heart happy and got me thinking about pre quarantine when travel was a thing. It is a little more time intensive than some of the other recipes I’ve shared, but using canned chickpeas helps to cut down on some of the time ( as these both call for dried chickpeas). People, I beg you to not skip the step of peeling and drying your chickpeas. It makes a world of difference and honestly I find it extremely relaxing. Take that extra 20 minutes, turn on some music, and rub those suckers with a paper towel until the skins come off. Cheaper than therapy, you can thank me later. Also just to warn you, this is not a recipe for you if you were thinking about making this for a first date or don’t like garlic. You will need 9 cloves in total and could obviously scale back if you wanted. The hummus recipe and simple greek salad seen above can be found in their own posts.
( adapted from the minimalist baker):
What you’ll need:
1 15oz can chickpeas ( peeled and dried)
1/2c chopped fresh parsley
1/2c chopped white onion
7 cloves garlic
2Tbsp Flour ( I used oat flour, you could use any other gluten free or all purpose flour you have on hand)
1.5tsp salt
2-3tsp ground cumin *
1pinch ground cardamom *
1tsp ground coriander*
cayenne pepper to taste
* as a side note, because of poor planning and quarantine, I didn’t realize that I was out of some of these spices and wasn’t able to get them quickly. I had garam masala on hand, which is a combination of these 3 starred as well as cinnamon and black pepper. I used 3tsp of that to replace what the recipe called for and it turned out great! the cinnamon added a bit of sweetness which was balanced by the spiciness of the cayenne. Moral of the story, don’t be afraid to use what you have available to you and experiment!
Oil for frying or baking
Directions:
1) Ill say it again, rinse and peel those chickpeas. Pat dry.
2) In a food processor, add the parsley, onion, and garlic. Mix until well combined.
3) Add chickpeas, flour, and spices to the food processor and mix. You will likely have to stop 2-3 times to scrape down the sides and make sure everything gets combined thoroughly. It took me about 3.5-4 minutes for this to happen. It will almost look like a paste, like below.
4) Cover and place in the fridge for an hour. This makes it way easier to form the falafel when the “batter” is cold. Make the hummus and greek salad while you’re waiting.
5) After an hour, scoop out a small amount and roll into a ball. Use your other hand to flatten the ball into a disc. Place on parchment paper.
6) Once you have all of your falafel ready, it’s time to cook. We used our Ninja Foodi on Air Fryer mode and cooked for 12 minutes at 400 degrees, flipping halfway through. Make sure to spray with cooking spray or some kind of oil so that they don’t stick. If you are baking them, preheat oven to 425 degrees and bake for 10-12 minutes, flipping halfway. You can also pan fry. If you are doing this, add enough oil to your skillet to cover the bottom of the pan and cook on medium heat. This will take less time, around 6 minutes flipping halfway. Regardless of the cooking method you choose, you want to have a golden brown crispy outside.
7) Serve as pictured above, with hummus and greek salad. Also delicious onto of a bed of lettuce as a salad or in a pita or wrap!
