Real Falafel
We call these real falafel because we have so many recipes for falafels that are no fry or high protein baked falafel but none of them are properly deep fried as a traditional falafel is, so we decided lets go authentic and make proper delicious epic falafels filled with lots of pickles and an amazing tahini cream and chilli sauce.
Takes 45 minutes
Serves 6
Ingredients
Falafel
- 250 g dried chickpeas
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3 cloves garlic
- 25 g flat parsley
- 50 g fresh coriander
- 1 small onion
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- ½ Black pepper
- 1 tbsp Ground cumin
- 1 tbsp Ground coriander
- ½ tsp Cayenne powder
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp sesame seeds
Tahini cream
- 500 g Natural soy yogurt
- 8 tbsp light Tahini
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- Juice of 1 Lemon
- Pinch of salt
Tomato, cucumber, onion
- 2 ripe Tomatoes
- ½ Cucumber
- ½ red onion
- Pinch salt
To serve
- 6-8 flat breads
- 100 g Pickled chillies
- 100 g Pickled red cabbage/ sauerkraut
- 100 g Chilli sauce
- 100 g pickled red cabbage
Instructions
Method:
- Add the chickpeas to a large bowl along with the baking soda and cover with twice the amount of water as they will at least double in volume. 250g of dried chickpeas will be 525g after soaking for 12-24 hours.
- Peel the garlic cloves and onion.
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add to a food processor along with the other ingredients for the falafel and blend for approx 2-3 mins on a pulse speed until they come together but also still have some texture. If you prefer it smooth blend till smooth but traditional falafels should have a little chunky texture.
- If using a deep fryer start to heat the oil or if using oil in a saucepan start to heat the oil, you want to heat the oil until it reaches approx 170 degrees C or else until bubbles start to rise from the bottom.
- While the oil is heating up, line a baking tray and shape the falafels into small balls ensuring to compress them so they hold their shape, the balls should be approx 3-4 cm in diameter, you can have them as perfect round balls or else flatten them to be more like thick coins or disk shaped. Shape the full mixture and have them ready to cook.
- Once the oil is hot enough, carefully cook the falafels in 2 or 3 batches, cook them for approx 4 mins until they are golden and crispy. Line another baking tray with kitchen paper to catch any excess oil and land the falafel on this.
- For the tahini cream, mix together the tahini, yoghurt, lemon juice, garlic powder and salt until well combined and a lovely creamy texture.
- Peel and finely dice ½ red onion, finely dice the cucumber, tomato and add to a bowl and mix together with a generous pinch of salt.
To serve
- Add a generous 2 dollops of tahini cream and spread across the flat bread, add approx 3 tbsp of the cucumber, tomato, onion mix, followed by 3-4 falafels per flatbread. Next layer on the pickled chilli, pickled red onions and pickled cabbage and finish off with some chilli sauce for a magic falafel. Mix and match the topping to your liking
- These are so good!
