Falafel

Falafel was one of those foods that I always wanted to try, but I was afraid of it because of cumin. I am not a fan at all, I always considered it overpowering and did not like the flavour. I decided to give it a chance eventually, and I found a new favorite food. I was surprised by how good these little crispy balls of chickpeas are.

You can fry them up, or you can bake them. I tried both, and I much prefer the fried version. The oven baked version is a bit too dry for my liking and they are not as soft on the inside. If you do want to bake them, try to spray a bit of oil on them, it will help them crisp up on the outside.

Enough with the stories. Let’s get into it, shall we?

Ingredients:

• 200g dry chickpeas
• 1/2 tsp (5g) cumin
• 1/2 tsp (3g) coriander seeds
• a handful of parsley
• 2 tbsp flour
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 red onion
• 4g sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Method:

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight or for at least 8 hours.
2. Grind the cumin and coriander seeds. I used a mortar to do it.
3. I chopped the onion and the parsley. It is not mandatory, because we will shove everything in a food processor, but I think it mixes up better, and doesn’t give such a hard time to my small food processor.
4. Add the chickpeas, spices, onion, garlic and parsley in the food processor. Pulse until you get a grainy paste. It should not be extremely smooth, it’s good to have more of a grainy texture.
5. Add the mixture in a bowl and then add the flour and baking soda. Mix it all together. The flour helps bind everything together and actually have the balls stay together.
6. Oil your palms and form the balls. I prefer to flatten them a little bit, it makes the cooking easier. If you bake them, keep them round.
7. You can choose to bake them, or to fry them. I tried both methods, but I prefer frying them. The texture is so much better, they are nice and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. To fry them, I used a cast iron pan with some oil in it. When the oil was hot, I added the falafel and let them get golden brown. When the bottoms were nice and crispy, it is time to flip them. It should take about 3-4 mins per side.
8. If you would rather bake them, spray them with some oil and pop them in the oven at 180C. After about 10 mins, check them and flip them and place them back for another 10-15 mins.

This is how easy it is to make them. I really love to make a Tabbouleh next to them, or maybe a garlic and yogurt sauce, fresh flatbreads, and the only thing that you can say is how good they are.

Try them out and let me know how you like them.