Middle Eastern Falafel
This is an authentic recipe for Falafel, the popular food all over the Middle East. It is as popular as Hamburgers in the west. It is eaten by many people on a daily basis. It is affordable and nutritious at the same time. Usually it is made into sandwiches. Falafel is stuffed into Pita bread with tomatoes and tahini sauce. Many other ingredients are added, it all depends on the personal taste. There are varieties of recipes for making Falafel, but it all comes to the same basic ingredients with slight differences through out the Middle East. In Lebanon they only use dry chickpeas, while in Egypt they use only dried and shelled fava (broad) beans but in Palestine and Jordan they use a mix of chickpeas and fava beans. You can make falafel from scratch and freeze the mix. Making falafel from scratch is very easy although it is time consuming but always a success and satisfying meal.
Total Steps
12
Ingredients
15
Tools Needed
5
Ingredients
- 2 cups chickpeas, cleaned from stones, washed and soaked
- 6 medium size onions
- cloves garlic(optional)
- 3 bunches cilantro
- 3 bunches parsley
- 3 tablespoons ground cumin
- 3 tablespoons cumin seeds
- 3 tablespoons ground coriander
- 3 tablespoons coriander seeds
- salt
- cooking oil for frying
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
- pita bread
- small diced salad
- tahini sauce
Instructions
Step 1
Soak the chickpeas for 12 hours. Drain and wash well.
Step 2
Rough chop the cilantro and the parsley.
Step 3
In the food processor, add chickpeas, parsley, coriander (presumably cilantro and parsley from step 2), and onions. Grind until all ingredients are mixed well and finely chopped. The mixture should be smooth and homogeneous. Do this step in patches until all your ingredients are used up.
Step 4
Add spices (ground cumin, cumin seeds, ground coriander, coriander seeds, and salt) to the mixture and mix well.
Step 5
Let the mixture stand for an hour to allow the flavors to develop, and the mixture will be easier to shape.
Step 6
Add one teaspoon of bicarbonate soda to the amount of mixture you are about to fry.
Step 7
Prepare the falafel stuffing. (Note: Ingredients for this stuffing are not provided in the recipe.)
Step 8
Shape the falafel rounds by hand or by using a falafel shaper instrument if you have one. Fill the falafel with the stuffing and close the falafel ball well.
Step 9
Heat up the cooking oil. Make sure your oil is very hot before you fry the falafel.
Step 10
Carefully drop the falafel balls into the hot oil; they fry fast. Do not stir while they are frying.
Step 11
Take the falafel out of the fryer and place on paper towels to drain the excess oil.
Step 12
Serve hot with pita bread, small diced salad, and tahini sauce.