Baked Falafel
Baked falafel is the perfect way to enjoy one of your favorite typically fried foods, baked and healthy. Add to a salad, a pita, or any Mediterranean entree.
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 255kcal
Ingredients
Making Falafel:
- 2 cups dry chickpeas or garbanzo beans soaked overnight
- ½ white onion diced
- ½ red onion diced
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- ¼ cup chopped dill
- 5 cloves Garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons Coriander
- 2 teaspoons Cumin
- 1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
- 2 teaspoons Fresh Ground Pepper
- 2 Tablespoons Lemon juice
- 2 ½ Tablespoon chickpea flour or flour of choice
- 2 Tablespoons Tahini
Lemony Tahini Dressing
- ½ cup Tahini
- ¼ cup Lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup Water
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Salad Ingredients:
- 2 heads Romaine Lettuce chopped
- 16 ounces Fresh Spinach
- 15 Grape Tomatoes cut in half
- 1 English Cucumber sliced thin
- 1 large White Onion sliced
- 1 can Chickpeas drained
- ½ cup chopped Dill
- 5 chopped Spicy Pickles
- Sprinkled Zatar lightly on each salad
Instructions
- Preparing the Chickpeas:Place two cups of dried chickpeas in a bowl.
- Cover with water.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours, preferably 24 hours.
Making the Falafel:
- Drain and rinse chickpeas. DO NOT COOK THE CHICKPEAS.
- Add chickpeas and all other falafel ingredients in a food processor.
DO NOT BLEND. - Instead, pulse the ingredients together until it forms a rough course meal.
- You will need to scrape the side and pulse again to include all ingredients.
- You don't want the consistency pasty. You want it consistently like couscous or rice.
- Place mixture, covered in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- Using a melon baller, to maintain ball size, use your hands to form identical falafel balls.
- Place each falafel ball into separate mini muffin pan holes. DO NOT GREASE PAN.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until browned.
- Dressing:Add all ingredients to a high-speed blender
- Blend on high.
- Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Salad Option:On individual plates, begins mixing both spinach and Romaine lettuce as the base.
- Add cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, chickpeas, sliced tomatoes and pickles.
- Sprinkle with dill.
- Sprinkle with Zatar.
- Add hot falafel balls.
- Add the desired dressing amount.
Notes
For a gluten-free option, use chickpea or almond flour. Although I made a salad with my falafel, you may make a wrap or you may eat the falafel as it is. Although I prefer my falafel hot, it is just as good cold.
The sauce also has options for making it spicy, or mild. You choose the degree of spice based on the amount of Paprika you use in the dressing.
Nutrition
Calories: 255kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 471mg | Potassium: 1039mg | Fiber: 11g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 13490IU | Vitamin C: 30mg | Calcium: 167mg | Iron: 6mg