falafel

Crispy on the outside, soft, fluffy, and ethereal within…I love falafel. I love making falafel. And my family loves it when I make falafel. Usually, it will be part of a Middle Eastern feast, with at least 4 dips and spreads, several sauces, traditional salads and pickles, and, of course, fresh pita.

There are probably as many recipes for falafel as there are people who make it, so expect some variations between my recipe and others.

Often, people add a bit of flour to their falafel dough to help them hold together. I’ve also seen them include egg in the recipe. Sometimes they’re baked and sometimes they’re pan fried. These all sound like yummy chickpea patties. They’re not falafel.

I’ve never flour ore egg, and I’ve never had a problem with them falling apart. I guess that makes my recipe gluten-free and vegan, although it wasn’t intentionally designed with that in mind.

So what makes them hold together? It’s about finding the sweet spot in the grind. You don’t want to grind them to a paste, which will result in falafel that are mushy and textureless on the inside, but if you don’t grind the dough finely enough, they won’t hold together. Stop the processor from time to time and check the texture to see if it holds together. You want to stop just shy of a paste. And don’t over fill the processor or it will be hard to get the mixture homogeneous. I usually split the chickpeas into two batches, adding some of the other ingredients to one batch and the rest to the other. As long as you do a good job of mixing them together in the end it’s no problem at all.

There are falafel that are a creamy white inside, like the color of chickpeas, and falafel that are a brilliant green when you bite into them. Both are delicious. I like the green ones.

What’s different about my falafel?

There are two odd, untraditional ingredients in my recipe, that you won’t find in others. They are:

Carrot. I add 1 small, finely grated carrot to the mix. Not enough to taste carrot when you bite in, but it adds a touch of sweetness. Just don’t add the carrot to the food processor with the other ingredients. The color of the dough will be gross. (learned that one the hard way…) Grate it separately and fold it in at the end.

Spinach. I add one small handful of spinach leaves to the food processor with the chickpeas. That, with the green herbs, is how I get that beautiful green color. Just don’t add too much, because if you do you will taste spinach, which I love, but that flavor doesn’t belong here.

If nothing else, these two additions add a bit more nutrition to the dish.

In the past, when reaching for herbs I’ve always only used parsley in my falafel dough because my mom hated cilantro. Notice the past tense? Now that my wonderful mother of blessed memory will no longer be joining us at the table, I’ve started adding a little cilantro as well.

One more tip—using ground cumin and cilantro from a jar is fine. But if you want to take the flavor to another level, use freshly ground. I have an old coffee grinder that I use for grinding spices. I just measure the two seeds into the grinder at once, go whish whish whish, and dump the contents into the bowl of the food processor with the other ingredients. It adds about 3 minutes to the prep time and makes a big difference in the finished product.

How should you serve falafel? Generally, they’re either served stuffed into a pita with salad, garnishes, and sauces, or served on a plate with Israeli salads and dips. In Israel, a falafel pita sandwich will often have fries tucked in as well. Can you say carb overload? I’ll bet it’s good that way, but I haven’t personally tried it.

Falafel should be served with tahini sauce. You can add lots of other things as well, but tahini is non-negotiable.

There are certain things that are just no.

Here in the south I’ve seen falafel served with tzatziki sauce. Now, I’m a big fan of creative fusion cooking, but, I’m sorry, that’s just wrong. Tzatziki is great,I’m a fan, but it doesn’t belong on falafel. Tzatziki is Greek. You may argue whether falafel is of Israeli or Arabic origin, but it’s most assuredly not Greek.

Some may argue this point, but falafel cannot be baked or made in an air fryer. The texture will just be wrong. They need to be deep fried in oil. If you don’t want to deep fry in oil, I recommend you make something else. Like some yummy chickpea patties.

It’s very important that you use dried chickpeas here, and not canned. Canned chickpeas are cooked and if you try to make falafel with cooked chickpeas, they will fall apart. You need to use dried chickpeas that are soaked for 24 hours, but not cooked. They will cook when you fry them.

After years of tweaking, I’m comfortable with making the claim that these are the best Israeli-style falafels you’ll have anywhere.

Fabulous Falafel

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in 10 cups of water for 24 hours, then drained

• 2 tsp baking soda

• 2 tsp salt

• 1 cup cut-up onion

• ½ cup parsley

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 2 teaspoon ground coriander

• 4 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press or finely chopped

• a few grinds of black pepper

• 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

• ½ tsp Aleppo pepper, or more to taste

• 1 small carrot, or a piece of a larger carrot

• a small handful of fresh spinach leaves

Method:

• Soak your two cups of chickpeas in a large bowl with 10 cups water. Put it somewhere where the cats can’t get to it or they’ll drink the water. Let them soak for 24 hours. Or…..in an emergency, you can cover the chickpeas with very hot water. Use a stainless steel bowl and cover the bowl. They should be ready to go in 4 hours.

• Depending upon the size of your food processor, you may need to process this in two batches. Trial and error has taught me that this is the best way to do that—

  • Into the bowl of the food processor, combine about ½ the chickpeas, the baking soda, the spinach, the parsley, half the salt, and the garlic. Process until you have a fairly fine, green paste. Scrape the mixture into a large mixing bowl.

  • Now, put the rest of the chickpeas into the processor with the cumin, coriander, a handful of cilantro if using, the rest of the salt, the black pepper, the Aleppo pepper, and the lemon juice. Pulse until the mixture is the texture is sort of a chunky paste. Add this mixture to the mixing bowl.

  • Stir the two batches together until very well combined.

• Heat a deep fryer to 350°. At a higher temperature, they’ll brown to quickly. At a lower temperature they’ll be greasy.

• Or, pour the high-smoke-point oil of your choice into a deep pot. Use a thermometer to keep the oil at the right temperature.

• Line a cookie sheet with parchment.

• Using a 1 inch cookie scoop, scoop up a level scoop of the falafel dough. Pop it into your hand and gently roll it into a ball. Put the ball on the parchment. Continue making balls until you either use up the dough or have made as many balls as you’d like. You can prepare the falafel up to this point in advance. Cover the tray with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to fry—preferably for no more than a few hours.

• Lower the fryer basket into the oil and gently drop in 8 or so balls. Shake the basket a little so that the balls don’t stick to the wire mesh. The falafel should take about 3 minutes per batch to reach a deep golden brown color. If they brown faster, your oil is too hot and they may not be cooked all the way through. If they need much longer, your oil isn’t hot enough and your falafel are in danger of being greasy.

• Drain on paper towels. You can keep the falafel in a warm oven to keep them hot while you fry subsequent batches.

Note: Leftover, reheated falafel balls are not that great. They’re ok, but just ok. The dough will keep in the fridge for about 3 days, and can be frozen for up to 3 months. So make as many as you’re going to eat and make more later.

Serve in pita, or on a plate, with a chopped salad of cucumber, tomato, and parsley (shredded lettuce and some fresh mint leaves are optional), dressed with a touch of good olive oil and lots of freshly squeezed lemon. Finish your falafel off with lots of tahini sauce. (If you’re serving it Israeli style, stuffed into a pita, there should be enough tahini for it to drip all over you when you eat it. (Just my opinion…)

Standard additional toppings include sauerkraut , sour pickles, pickled turnips, and hot sauce.

Note: If making falafel for a very large crowd, under-fry them slightly in as many batches as you need to, then set them aside. Just before serving, load up the basket(s) with the balls and lower them into 375° oil for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Left over falafel dough freezes well.

Did you make it? Was it fabulous?