Falafel is a Middle Eastern dish that has become popular all around the world as it is a good replacement for meat in vegetarian dishes such as burgers and wraps. The Falafel can be enjoyed on its own, as an addition to your kebab, in burger, wraps and sandwiches and even as finger food for your kids’ birthday.
It takes skills to make a good Falafel as it can easily become too dry or it can crumble and not hold its shape, but with this recipe, you will surely get a winning dish.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of dried chickpeas, avoid using chickpeas in a can
- 1 onion, roughly chopped.
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 ½ tablespoon of chickpea flour
- ¼ cup of chopped parsley
- 2 teaspoons of cumin
- 1 teaspoon of coriander
- 1 ¾ teaspoons of salt
- ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon of black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon of ground cardamom
- Vegetable oil
Preparation Method:
- Soak the dried chickpeas in cold water overnight. You need about 3 inches of water and a big bowl as the chickpeas will expand in size when soaking. You should get about 4 to 5 cups of chickpea when you are done.
- Drain the chickpeas and put them into the food processor along with the onions, garlic, parsley, chickpea flour, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cardamom and salt.
- Turn the food processor on until you get a roughly mixed consistency. Avoid getting a smooth mixture as it will ruin the texture of the Falafel. Over-processing will turn it into hummus instead while not processing it enough will make the Falafel fall apart when deep frying.
- Pour the processed mixture into the bowl and sieve through using a fork. Remove any chickpea that is too chunky.
- Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and refrigerate the mixture for 1 to 2 hours.
- Fill a pan with vegetable oil enough to coat the Falafel. Heat the oil under medium heat or until you reach a temperature of 180°C. Form the Falafel mixture into a flat round shape using your wet hand and put the mixture into the hot pan.
- Fry the Falafel for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until it is golden brown. Once cooked, remove the falafel onto a kitchen towel to excess extra oil. Let it cool down for one minute and serve it as it is or with a tahini sauce.