Oven-baked falafels
These oven-baked falafels are deliciously crisp on the outside but soft and moist on the inside. Enjoy them with a whole-wheat pita bread, some hummus or plain yoghurt, and lots of fresh chopped salad.
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry chickpeas see notes on canned versus dry chickpeas
- 1 cup frozen peas defrosted
- 2 tbsp tahini substitute with olive oil of you do not have tahini
- 1 lemon or lime juiced
- 1 large handful fresh parsley or coriander
- 1 tsp each salt, ground cumin, ground coriander
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 red or white onion very finely chopped
- OPTIONAL 1 carrot or zucchini grated
Instructions
- Soak the chickpeas overnight or for at least 6 hours. They will be crunchy and edible but raw.
- Preheat the oven to 220 C (fan on if possible)
- Drain the chickpeas and discard the water.
- Place the chickpeas, peas, and tahini (or oil) in a bullet blender or food processor, and pulse into a roughly mashed batter. Do not over-blend, your batter will be too sloppy. You may need to do this in batches or to open the blender regularly to scrape out the batter around the blade.
- Scrape the chickpea batter out into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the chickpea mixture and combine well. You can now either store the batter in the fridge or freezer for later use, or you can start rolling balls and baking.
- Use an ice-cream scoop to make golf-ball sized falafel balls. You can use your hands if you don't own an ice-cream scoop.
- Place falafels on a prepared oven tray (use non-stick cooking spray or baking paper) and pop them in the oven for approximately 20 minutes, turning the falafels after 10 minutes.
- Remove your falafels and enjoy!
Notes
Using dry chickpeas that have been soaked overnight will yield better results compared to using canned chickpeas, but you can get away with canned chickpeas if you are careful. You do not want the chickpeas to be over-blended, so use a fork rather than a food processor, roughly mashing the chickpeas. Adding an egg to the batter will help the falafels to hold together. I have done this with canned chickpeas with success.
Each golf ball-sized falafel provides roughly 80 kcal with 4g protein, 11g carb, 4g fiber and 2.5g fat. 3 - 4 falafels per person makes a good portion size. You can definitely make them smaller if you prefer.