How to make falafel
Making fresh falafel at home isn’t nearly as time-consuming and labor intensive as it may seem. As long as you plan ahead and have the right equipment, falafel can easily be made in 30 to 45 minutes. You can make the accompaniments to your falafel as simple or complex as you like. Don’t let the perceived difficulty of making falafel steer you away from giving it a shot.
The method for making falafel is quite simple. Soaked chickpeas are ground with aromatics, herbs and spices. This mixture is then formed into balls or patties and fried.
Ingredients
First things first, you have to use dried chickpeas to make good falafel. Canned cooked chickpeas will yield a mushy, dense falafel….no good. The dried chickpeas need to be soaked overnight in at least double their volume of cold water. The chickpeas will swell and absorb much of the water and if you don’t properly cover them, some chickpeas will eventually end up above the “water line” and not soak properly. The chickpeas can be soaked at room temperature or in the fridge.
I like to use whole fresh spices, which I grind for each batch of falafel, but powdered spices would also work well. I also use fresh turmeric in this recipe, but if you do not have access to it, powdered turmeric would work.
Equipment
You can make this falafel using one of three pieces of equipment…blender, food processor or meat grinder. You can get good results with all three but some methods have their advantages.
Using a blender is probably the most difficult way to make falafel. That is not to say it can’t be done … I have used a blender many times with good results. However, I wouldn’t try to make big batches of falafel using this method. The reason for this is that you need to carefully pulse the falafel in many small batches in order to achieve a good, consistent grind. This is much more time-consuming than using a food processor or meat grinder. If you choose to grind your falafel in the blender, do not fill the blender more than 1/3 of the way and pulse the falafel mix in small batches until all of your falafel is ground. Use a spoon to stir the falafel in between pulses to help achieve an even grind.
A food processor can grind much more falafel at a time and is easier to use. The food processor mixes the falafel as it is running which will keep you from having to stop and stir falafel in between pulses.
Using a meat grinder is my preferred method for making falafel. That is because it yields a very even grind on the falafel and it is REALLY fast. I use a 5 mm die for falafel but a smaller die would also work. Clean up is really simple because the falafel (unlike ground meat) isn’t fatty and will easily rinse off of the grinder’s moving parts. I understand most people don’t have a meat grinder at home, but if you do, I highly recommend using it. Good electric meat grinders can be found online for under 60 dollars and are totally worth the investment.
Deep fry?
While this recipe calls for deep-frying the falafel, this is not necessary and pan frying the falafel is equally delicious. I actually pan fry much more often when cooking during the week. Pan frying uses less oil, which in turn allows me to cook the falafel in olive oil instead of vegetable oil (I wouldn’t dare fill a deep fryer with extra virgin olive oil to cook a few falafel on a Tuesday night).
Deep-frying can achieve nice round falafel, but pan frying is much better suited to forming the falafel into disc shaped patties. This will make it much easier to cook them as you only have 2 sides to cook. If you try to pan fry spherical falafel, you will need to be constantly turning and rotating the falafel to achieve a nice even cook… which is a pain in the ass.
To pan-fry the falafel, make disk shaped patties that are approximately 3/4 inch thick and 2 inches in diameter. Fill a sauté pan with about 1/2 inch of olive oil and fry a few of the patties over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes per side. Oil should sizzle as the falafels cook but not so hot that the falafel burn in the time it takes to cook them. Be very delicate with the falafel when adding them to the oil and flipping them. The falafels will want to fall apart at first. Once they have developed a crust they will hold together much more easily. Once they are nicely browned on both side, rest them on paper towels and cook the rest of the falafel in batches.
Falafel
Equipment
- meat grinder (5 mm die), food processor or blender
- thermometer (if deep frying)
Ingredients
- 225 grams dry chickpeas about 1/2 pound
- 115 grams rough chopped onion 1 small or 1/2 medium onion
- 7 grams chopped garlic 2 medium cloves
- 20 grams sliced serrano pepper (seeds removed if you would like less heat) about 2 small serrano peppers
- 5 grams chopped fresh turmeric 1/2 Tbsp. (can substitute with 1 Tsp. turmeric powder)
- 20 grams rough chopped cilantro, leaves and stems 1 cup loosely packed
- 12 grams rough chopped parsley, leaves and stems 3/4 cup loosely packed
- 1 gram whole cardamom pods 5 pods
- 1 gram coriander seed 1 tsp.
- 2 grams cumin seed 1 tsp.
- 1 gram black peppercorn 1/2 tsp.
- 5 grams salt (1/2 Tbsp diamond crystal kosher salt)
- 4 grams baking powder 1 tsp.
- 6 cups neutral flavored frying oil (canola, vegetable, corn….etc) Or 2/3 cup olive oil if pan frying
Instructions
- Soak the chickpeas overnight in at least double the volume of water.
- Gather and cut all the ingredients
- Grind the spices in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
- Drain the soaked chickpeas VERY WELL and mix all the ingredients except the baking powder and cooking oil. The chickpeas need to be very dry before mixing so the falafel mix is not too wet.
- Grind the falafel mix using a 5 mm grinder die. Alternatively, process or blend the mix until a medium-course texture is achieved. The falafel mixture should just hold together when squeezed into a ball.
- Sprinkle on the baking powder and mix well with your hands. Taste the mixture at this point and adjust seasoning with more salt if desired.
- Roll the falafel into 50 gram balls and set aside. Falafel should hold together although it will still be a bit delicate if handled roughly. This recipe will yield about 12 balls.
- Add the oil to a pot and heat to 350 Fahrenheit. Make sure the oil does not come up more than 1/3 of the way up the pot to avoid a boil over. Oil should be about 1.5 inches in depth. If necessary, add more oil.
- Carefully lower 6 of the falafel balls into the oil using a spoon. This needs to be done carefully as the falafel will want to fall apart in the first 30 seconds of cooking. After 30 seconds, a crust will form that will keep them from falling apart.
- Oil temperature should drop to about 325 Fahrenheit once the falafel are added to the pot. Try to maintain 325 as the falafel cook.
- Cook the falafel for 4-5 minutes, stirring the falafel as they cook.
- After 4-5 minutes, a good crust should have formed and the falafel can be removed from the oil and placed onto a paper towel lined plate. No need to season with salt as the filling should be well seasoned.
- Fry the other half of the falafel balls in the same way.
- Allow falafel to cool for 2 minutes before enjoying.
