Falafel – How to make nutritious & crispy falafel at home

5 min read

Falafel is a nutritious and crispy street food as well as staple food in middle eastern region.

The first time I had my Falafel was in Kuwait, in a small arab restaurant. I felt it is similar to our south-indian dal vadai. But the ingredients that we add for Falafel are more.

Watching someone frying Falafel in a terrace kitchen setup, in a winter season is a feast to eyes. Getting it hot-hot on the plate with some sauce makes you feel heavenly and blissful.

Traditionally Falafel is deep fried balls. But you can make it as per your convenience, either deep fry or shallow fry or bake it or air fry it.

In restaurants, they just scoop the dough like an ice cream and deep fry it.

The main ingredient for Falafel is white chick-peas / White channa dal; the dried and soaked chick-peas are used for it. You cannot use canned chick-peas for this recipe as we want to make make crispy falafel.

How to serve Falafel?

You can serve Falafel with some sauces or mayonnaise. Garlic sauce or Sesame Sauce (Tahini) goes well with this.

This can be wrapped in breads / pitas with some sauce and potato fries. I have this as my breakfast in my workplace often.

You can wrap it along with some veg salads and/or meat of your choice to make it a good tiffin or meal.

It is one of my most loved arab food /snack as you call it. Falafel is one of the most requested recipe in my circle.

You might be interested to know some of my other snack/tiffin recipes. Do check out few here.

Falafel

Nutritious and crispy street food as well as staple food in middle eastern region. You can have this as snack with sauce. This can be wrapped in breads / pitas with some sauce(garlic or sesame) and potato fries. You can wrap it along with some veg salads and/or meat of your choice to make it a good tiffin or meal.

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Soaking time 8

Total Time 8 25

Course Street food

Cuisine Mediterranean, middle-eastern

Servings 20

Ingredients

1 cup Chick peas / white channa dal
Oil for frying

To Grind

1 Onion
2 Green chilli adjust as per your spice need
5 Garlic cloves
1 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp whole Pepper adjust as per your spice need
1/2 cup Chopped coriander leaves
1/2 cup Parsley
1 tsp Salt as required

To Mix

1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Asefoetida / hing (optional, I prefer to add it)
2 tbsp Chick-pea / Channa dal powder
1 Lemon juice optional, I did not use it

Instructions

Soak and grind Chickpea

Wash and soak the chick-peas for 8 hours. After 8 hours, drain the water completely.

Prepare the dough

Add all the ingredients mentioned under "To Grind" in a food processor or mixer grinder along with chick-peas.
Grind all together coarsely.
Add baking soda, hing, channa dal and lemon juice with the ground channa dal and mix together.
Now the dough is ready.

To deep fry:

Make small lemon sized ball and deep fry in medium hot oil, flipping in between once or twice. Take out after it turns to golden brown.

To Shallow fry

Make small lemon size ball and flatten it to round shaped patty.
In a pan, shallow fry one side in medium hot oil. Then flip to other side and fry.
Take out after it turns to golden brown.

To Bake

Preheat the oven for 180 degree Celsius. Make small lemon size ball and flatten it to round shaped patty as we do for shallow fry.
Grease the tray with vegetable oil and then transfer the patties to tray. Spray some oil on it and bake it for 20 to 30 minutes flipping through in between. Take out once it turns to golden brown color.

Notes

If you are using food processor to grind, depends on its size, you can grind it all together or split them and grind.

If you are using mixer grinder, split the chick-peas in batches and grind.

Freshly and Coarsely ground chick-peas will give you crispy falafel.

Keyword falafel

Step-by-Step Pictures of making Falafel

Wash and soak the chick-peas for 8 hours and drain the water.
Transfer the chick-peas to food processor or mixer grinder.
Add all the ingredients mentioned under “To Grind” in a food processor or mixer grinder. Grind all together coarsely.
Add baking soda, Asefoetida and channa dal powder and mix well.
Now the dough is ready.
You can either deep fry it or shallow fry or bake it.
To deep fry: make small lemon sized ball and deep fry in medium hot oil, fliping in between once or twice.
To shallow fry: Make small lemon size ball and flatten it to round shaped patty. In a pan, shallow fry one side in medium hot oil. Then flip to other side and fry.
To Bake: Preheat the oven for 180 degree celcius. Make small lemon size ball and flatten it to round shaped patty as we do for shallow fry.
Grease the tray with vegetable oil and then transfer the pattys to tray. Spray some oil on it and bake it for 20 to 30 minutes flipping through in between. Take out once it turns to golden brown color.