We all have those foods that could make us salivate at the mere mention of them. Falafel fall in that category for me. Drop the word falafel, and you’re gonna hear me squeal. Yes, squeal. Because falafel are so, incredibly tasty. And I’m not the only one susceptible to their magnetism — not only do I have so much passion for this food, but the food and its history has the tendency to provoke a lot of controversy and intense emotion.
I get it: you may not be as hot for falafel as I am. Taste is very individual. Judging someone for their food tastes is like judging them for the type of music they like or the people they love. We crave what we crave, sometimes inexplicably so. Just because it ain’t your thing doesn’t mean it’s not someone else’s, but we still have plenty of crave-worthy food for you to take a crack at making. Check out any one of our other recipes if falafel isn’t what you have a hankering for.
Falafel are deep-fried balls made from chickpeas, fava beans, or a combination of both. The ones we’re making in this post require chickpeas (a.k.a garbanzos), and our process is an adaptation of Mark Bittman’s Falafel recipe featured in the New York Times.
Ingredients
- 2 cups chickpeas
- ½ onion, quartered
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
- ½ cup parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Soak the beans for at least 24 hours, adding a couple pinches of salt into the water beforehand. Feel free to prepare the tzatziki and hummus at this point as well, if you’re making both from scratch.
- When the garbanzos have doubled or tripled in size by the following day, add them to a blender along with all of the remaining ingredients except for the oil.
- Blend everything until the mixture is pretty easy to form into a very, very wet ball — almost too wet to maintain shape. The ball should be a little smaller than a golf ball.
- Using enough oil to cover at least hagl of any given falafel ball, heat the oil to approximately 375 ℉ or until dit is hot enough that a teaspoon of the mixture sizzles down and floats to the top in a matter of seconds.
- Drops the balls into the oil so that the fill the pot without touching each other too much.
- Cook the falafel balls for approximately two minutes per side, or until they are golden brown and crispy.
- Serve hot or room temperature with store bought hummus and tzatziki, or take a crack at making the Mostly Wholesome version of both!