Hi everyone,
I posted a photo of the falafels I made on my Instagram – newbie here – and I have been asked me to share my recipe. So here it goes!
Before we dig into it, follow me on Instagram so you can see more of the food I cook. It’s called Cook_with_Lu.
I tested out several recipes of falafels; I was never completely satisfied with any of them. There was always something that I did not like, one recipe was too runny and the falafels fell apart when I was frying them, another called for the oven cooking method and they came out very dry, another was not tasty enough. Anyhow, I took what I liked from each of them and came out with this recipe that works for me.
Favour organic herbs and garlic if you can
You will need:
- 170g of uncooked chickpeas
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 15 g of fresh parsley (to tell you the truth, it’s an approximation as I think the more the tastier)
- 15 g of fresh coriander (same as above)
- 2 or 3 stems of fresh mint
- a quarter of an onion
- 1 tbsp of all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp of ground coriander
- 1 tsp of cumin powder
- ½ tsp of bicarbonate
- ½ tsp of toasted white sesame seeds
- ½ tsp of cayenne pepper
- Salt and pepper to taste
Note: start with a teaspoon of salt and adjust to your taste. The amount of salt depends on how you like to eat them; plain or with the tahini sauce, on the go or in a sandwich with pita bread
Directions:
1. Prep the ingredients:
– Soak the chickpeas in cold water overnight
– Wash and drain them well
– Wash and drain well the fresh herbs.
Sometimes I want my herbs to blend in the mixture with the chickpeas; in that case, I roughly chop them and toss them in the blender. In some other cases, I like to feel the herbs in bigger chunks like in the photo below. So I mince them all together with my chef knife and set them aside in a salad bowl. It takes a little longer so it’s so worth it
– Halve the cloves of garlic and remove the germ
– Roughly chop the onion
2. Now if your blender is a cheap one like mine, transfer the ingredients in the blender in the following order: the eggs, the herbs – if you want them to be finely mixed, the garlic and onion, the flour, the bicarbonate, all the spices, the salt and pepper, and finally the chickpeas
Note: I have an Oster blender. The lower part looks like a funnel and there is a gap between the blades and the bottom. The chickpeas are always stuck in there. So to save me some time and my sanity, I add the chickpeas at the last moment
3. Mix well into a paste and transfer into a salad bowl
4. Heat a non-stick pan with some vegetable oil (I use either olive oil or grape seed oil) on medium heat. Don’t burn the oil!
5. Lower the heat while shaping the falafels. Use one tablespoon to scoop some mixture and take an additional tablespoon to shape into patties – unless you have the Lebanese falafel mold 😉
6. Transfer each patty on the pan and press down with the back of a tablespoon. And keep going until the pan is filled with patties
7. Flip the patties in the order you put them in the pan, they need to be cooked for 3 to 4 minutes on each side
I live in Mexico City where baking and cooking can be quite challenging because of the high altitude. That is why I like to pan fry the falafels instead of using the oven that quickly dries them up. As I always freeze some to serve them in my kids’ lunchboxes, I personally believe the freezing process dries them up even more. That is why I prefer this cooking method.
Some recipes call for canned chickpeas. Personally, I don’t recommend using the canned version as they are cooked. They will leak more water into the mixture and you will have trouble shaping the patties. At last, that happened to me. The patties miserably collapsed in the pan. I ended up with a kind of big falafel pancake. And if you are anything like me and LOVE the fresh herbs, keep in mind they will leak some water as well.
Alright, I hope you will give that recipe a try. Leave me a comment and tell me how you liked it.
Have a great end of the week – so looking forward to the weekend.
