Falafel is one of the most popular street food snack, it is a deep-fried ball, or a flat or patty, made from ground chickpeas. Herbs, spices, and onion are commonly added to the dough. This is a popular Lebanese snack which finds it’s origins in Egypt
Ideally though Falafel is made of herbs and chickpeas so it is highly nutritious and good for health but the downside is once you fry it, you add calories to the dish and this make it fruitless so here comes the baked version and now munch on them guilt free. It is healthy, vegan and gluten free
**Now I have never use canned chickpeas for Falafel but I have seen various chefs recommending not to use it as it does not give the right texture to Falafel and it becomes mushy. In India, raw Chickpeas is easily available in all stores hence using them in the dish was easy
*I haven’t used baking soda to prepare this, you can use them if required. Adding soda will make it more fluffier, you can skip it too. I have seen recipes using flour now I haven’t added any flour to this dish and didn’t feel the need for it
You can munch on Falafel as is , the way my kid does or use flavored yogurt/ Tahini sauce as dip. You can also use them with pita bread , burgers and so on.
Preparation time: 10 mins Baking time: 20 mins Total time: 30 mins
Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpeas/Kabuli Chana / garbanzo beans
- 1/2 cup medium onion chopped
- 1 cup fresh parsley chopped or 1/2 cup parsley and 1/2 cup cilantro
- 3 cloves garlic peeled
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- Salt to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda – optional
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons virgin olive oil
Steps to prepare
- Clean and soak chickpeas in 4 cups of water overnight
- Clean and drain Chickpeas. Add them to a food processor/Grinder
- Add onion, parsley, garlic, cumin, salt, and lemon juice. Pulse the mixture just until the ingredients are smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Now if you wish to prepare the Falafel later, you can refrigerate them, Just cling wrap then and store in refrigerator for 1 week and upto 1 month in Freezer. Now I generally refrigerate dough for 1 hour and then start preparing it, it renders right texture to the dish on baking
- Divide the mixture into equal balls and and gently flatten them. Arrange the falafel on the greased baking sheet and brush the top of the falafel with oil.
- Bake the falafel for 20- 25 minutes in preheated oven at 200 deg cel, flip Falafel halfway, and now bake until golden and crispy on the outside.
- Serve Falafel warm with yogurt dip or Tahini sauce. Store any leftovers in air tight container and use within 4 days. Just warm them up before serving
Cook with Rekha 