How long to bake falafel – your question answered.
Those who love falafel, raise your hands! I’ve dug up my all-time favorite homemade falafel recipe from the past to show you. It can be hard to make falafel at home, but this recipe is simple.
This healthy falafel recipe is great because:
The outside of these falafels is golden brown and crunchy. The inside is soft, tasty, and packed with fresh herbs.
Since they are baked instead of fried, they have a lot less fat than falafel that is fried. And the smell of fried food won’t be in your house for days. Winning!
Once the chickpeas have been soaked long enough, the falafel mix comes together quickly. If you have someone to help you shape the patties, they will come together even faster.
These falafels are vegan and gluten-free, so they make a great appetizer for a party.
These falafels can be frozen, which makes them a great protein-rich food to keep on hand for salads and pita sandwiches in the future.
Also, this recipe is easy to make twice as much of! See recipe notes.
Are you still not sure? Let’s make some falafel!
How to Make the Best Falafels at Home
Don’t fry it, bake it. I say this because frying needs a lot of very hot oil, which makes me nervous. I also don’t have a good vent above my oven to get the smell of fried food out of my house. Also, in the baked version, you can use a good amount of olive oil, which is good for your heart.
Spread olive oil on your baking sheet with a rim. So, the falafels will look like they were fried in the oven, and you won’t have to brush each one with olive oil. Winning!
Use dried chickpeas instead of canned ones. You can’t make falafel with canned chickpeas. They are much too damp. If you try to make falafel pancakes with canned chickpeas instead of dried and soaked chickpeas, they won’t be very good. Some recipes try to balance out the wetness by adding flour, but this makes the flavor much less interesting and the texture more doughy.
Soak the dried chickpeas for four hours or longer. If your chickpeas aren’t softened enough, you’ll have hard pieces of chickpea in your falafel that won’t taste good. There really is no way around this.
Be smart about which dried chickpeas you buy. Try to buy dried chickpeas from a store that sells a lot of them, since old chickpeas take longer to soften. If you have a choice, choose the smallest chickpeas because they will soften more quickly.
How Long to Bake Falafel
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes (plus 4-hour soaking time)
Yield: 12 falafels 1x
This is an appetizer.
The way: baked
Middle Eastern food.
This falafels recipe for homemade falafel is very crispy and tastes great. Make sure to soak the chickpeas for at least 4 hours, or better yet, overnight. Then, making the falafel mix is a breeze with a food processor. Recipe makes between 12 and 13 falafels (see notes on how to double).
Ingredients
¼ cup + 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup of dried, uncooked chickpeas, rinsed, picked over, and soaked for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours in the fridge.
12 cup red onion, roughly chopped (about 12 small red onion)
12 cup of fresh parsley in a bag (mostly leaves but small stems are ok)
12 cup of fresh cilantro, packed (mostly leaves but small stems are ok)
4 cloves garlic, quartered
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
12 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper (about 25 twists)
12 teaspoon of cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
Instructions
Put a rack in the middle of the oven and turn the temperature up to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour a quarter cup of olive oil into a large baking sheet with a rim and turn the sheet until it is evenly coated.
Put the soaked and drained chickpeas, the onion, parsley, cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon, and the last tablespoon of olive oil in a food processor. Pulse until everything is mixed well. Process until smooth, which takes about a minute.
Take about 2 tablespoons of the mixture at a time with your hands. Make small patties with the falafel that are about 2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick. Put each falafel on your pan that has been oiled.
Bake the falafels for 25 to 30 minutes, flipping them carefully halfway through, until they are deep golden on both sides. You can keep these falafels in the fridge for up to 4 days or in the freezer for several months.
Notes
The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook was used as a guide.
Make-ahead option: I haven’t tried this, but the original recipe says that the uncooked falafel patties can be stored in the fridge for up to two hours on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and tightly wrapped in plastic wrap.
How to make this dish twice as big: Put two oven racks near the middle of the oven and heat it up. Make double of everything. If you have a big food processor (with a capacity of 11 cups or more), you can mix all the ingredients at once. Use two baking sheets and switch where they are when you turn the falafel over halfway through cooking.
