My family’s secret recipe for the Best Authentic Falafel, made with chickpeas, fresh herb, and the right spices! And, I’m sharing my complete step-by-step tutorial and important tips for baking or frying falafel. Be sure to also watch the video to see how I make it!
What’s your favorite way to enjoy falafel? I love them in warm pita sandwiches with tahini sauce or hummus, along with my lazy Mediterranean tomato and cucumber salad. But you can enjoy it alongside other plates or as part of a mezze spread (lots of ideas below!)
Growing up in Port Said, Egypt, one of my favorite foods ever was falafel!
My father’s friend owned a small falafel shop that was located in the heart of the souq (market). Our weekends often involved a trip to see Mr. Bishay and partake of his fragrant falafels. You could smell them from miles away!
Over the years I have learned how to make my own authentic falafel and I am super excited to share my recipe with you! It’s as authentic and delicious as you’d find on the streets of the middle east. And easier to make than you think!
What is Falafel?
Falafel is a popular Middle Eastern “fast food” made of a mixture of chickpeas (or fava beans), fresh herbs, and spices that are formed into a small patties or balls. It’s thought that falafel originated in Egypt as Coptic Christians looked for a hearty replacement for meat during long seasons of fasting or lent. It has also become a popular vegan food in Egypt and throughout the Middle East.
Falafel continues to be the people’s daily grub in Egypt and you can find it from street vendors in almost every neighborhood. It’s often served in sandwich form with a generous drizzle of tahini and loads of Mediterranean salad, along with slices of roasted or fried eggplant.
This vegan dish is made with simple, everyday ingredients and you won’t believe how easy it is. Great ingredients are key to great falafel so be sure to purchase high quality spices like cumin and coriander for your falafel mixture. I’ve got a few more tips for you below…
What I love about this recipe
– No canned chickpeas (very important!) If you’re after the best texture and flavor, you need to start with dry chickpeas. Many falafel recipes use canned chickpeas which is not authentic and will cause the falafel patties disintegrate in the hot cooking oil.
– Hearty and flavorful. Falafel patties are packed with plant-power and protein from the chickpeas that will leave you feeling full and satisfied. My recipe also uses the perfect blend of spices —cumin, coriander, and a hit of cayenne–and fresh herbs to give them bold authentic flavor.
– Make ahead and freezer friendly. I love that this recipe can be prepped ahead of time, and you can freeze uncooked falafel patties for later use.
Ingredients
– Dried chickpeas: AVOID using canned chickpeas! Dried chickpeas (that have been soaked in water for 24 hours) are an important ingredient that will give your falafel the right consistency and taste. (Tip: I usually add about 1/2 tsp of baking soda to the soaking water to help soften the dry chickpeas.)
– Fresh herbs: fresh parsley, cilantro, and dill are key to this authentic recipe.
– Onion: I typically use yellow onions, but white or red onions would work.
– Garlic: for best flavor, use fresh garlic cloves.
– Kosher salt and pepper: to taste.
– Spices: cumin, coriander, and a little cayenne pepper. Along with the fresh herbs, this trio of spices is what gives falafel it’s bold authentic taste.
– Baking powder: this is what gives falafel an airy, fluffy texture (many recipes skip this, causing the falafel to come out too dense.)
– Sesame seeds: these are optional here, but I do like the added nuttiness.
How to Make Falafel: Step-by-Step
1. Soak chickpeas for 24 hours. Cover them in plenty of water and add baking soda to help soften them as they soak. The chickpeas will at least double in size as they soak. Drain very well.
2. Make mixture. Add chickpeas, fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro, and dill), garlic, onion, and spices to food processor and pulse a little bit at a time until the mixture is finely ground. You’ll know it’s ready when the texture is more like coarse meal.
& Refrigerate (important.) Transfer the falafel mixture to a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight. The chilled mixture will hold together better, making it easier to form the falafel patties.
3. Form patties or balls. Once the falafel mixture has been plenty chilled, stir in baking powder and toasted sesame seeds, then scoop golf ball-sized balls and form into balls or patties (if you go the patties route, do not flatten them too much, you want them to still be nice and fluffy when they’re cooked.)
4. Fry. Frying is the traditional way to cook falafel and yields the most authentic and best result. Heat the oil on medium-high until it bubbles softly (your oil should be hot enough around 375 degrees F, but not too hot that it causes the falafel to fall apart.)
Carefully drop the falafel in the oil, using a slotted spoon, and fry for 3-5 minutes until medium brown on the outside. Avoid over-crowding the falafel; fry them in batches if necessary.
Tip: it’s always a good idea to fry one falafel first to make sure the oil temperature does not need to be adjusted.
You can serve falafel for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! Most Egyptians, and others throughout the Middle East actually start their day with falafel, much like many here in the States start with a bowl of cereal.
Important Tips
I shared some of these earlier in the post, but just in case you missed them:
1. Always use dry chickpeas. Dry chickpeas, that have been soaked in water for 24 hours, will give you the best texture and flavor. Dry chickpeas are naturally starchy and will help your falafels to stay well formed. If you use canned chickpeas, your falafel will disintegrate in the frying oil.
2. Chill the falafel mixture. Chilling for at least 1 hour helps with the shaping. And good news is, you can make the falafel mixture one night in advance and chill overnight.
3. Add baking powder to the falafel mixture before forming into balls/patties. As a raising agent, baking powder here helps make the falafel on the fluffy side.
4. Fry in bubbling oil, and do not crowd the saucepan. For perfectly crispy falafel, sadly, the best option is deep frying. The cooking oil should be hot and gently bubbling, but not too hot that the falafel disintegrate. If you need to, use a deep fry-safe thermometer (affiliate link); it should read around 375 degrees F (for my stove, that is medium-high heat.)
5- Once cooked, falafel should be crispy and medium brown on the outside, fluffy and light green on the inside.
For baked falafel
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and lightly oil a baking sheet. Give each patty a quick brush of extra virgin olive oil before baking; bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, turning the falafel patties over halfway through baking.
Make ahead and freezing
To make ahead: Prepared falafel mixture will keep in the fridge for 1-2 days ahead of time. Form it into patties when ready to fry.
To freeze: Place uncooked falafel patties on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and freeze for 1 hour. Once hardened, transfer the patties into a freezer bag and freeze for up to 1 month. Falafel can be cooked from frozen by frying or baking.
Choose how to serve falafel
Middle Eastern Style: On the streets of the Middle East, falafel are typically served hot with a generous amount of tahini sauce.
As a Sandwich: To make a mean falafel sandwich, garb some warm pita pockets, load them with falafel, drizzle with tahini and add fresh greens (like arugula), fresh diced tomatoes, cucumbers, and pickles.
On a brunch board: Serve your flalafel with an array of fresh veggies, cheese, and dips like I have don’t on my brunch board.
As a side: serve falafel next to small plates like Turkish-inspired fried eggplant, tabouli salad, or Balela Salad.
Dip it: If you’re looking to dip your falafel, definitely try my Classic Creamy Hummus or Baba Ganoush!
Watch video for this authentic falafel recipe
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How to Make Falafel
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 24 Patties 1x
Description
Ready to learn how to make authentic falafel from scratch? My family’s secret recipe for the Best Authentic Falafel, made with chickpeas, fresh herb, and spices is all you need!
Be sure to check out the complete step-by-step tutorial, important tips for baking or frying falafel. And watch the video just above.
What’s your favorite way to enjoy falafel? I love them in warm pita sandwiches with tahini sauce or hummus, along with my lazy Mediterranean tomato and cucumber salad. But you can enjoy it alongside other plates or as part of a mezze spread (lots of ideas below!)
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried chickpeas (Do NOT use canned or cooked chickpeas)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup fresh parsley leaves, stems removed
- 3/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, stems removed
- 1/2 cup fresh dill, stems removed
- 1 small onion, quartered
- 7–8 garlic cloves, peeled
- Salt to taste
- 1 tbsp ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper, optional
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
- Oil for frying
Falafel Sauce
Fixings for falafel sandwich (optional)
- Pita pockets
- English cucumbers, chopped or diced
- Tomatoes, chopped or diced
- Baby Arugula
- Pickles
Instructions
- (One day in advance) Place the dried chickpeas and baking soda in a large bowl filled with water to cover the chickpeas by at least 2 inches. Soak overnight for 18 hours (longer if the chickpeas are still too hard). When ready, drain the chickpeas completely and pat them dry.
- Add the chickpeas, herbs, onions, garlic and spices to the large bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade. Run the food processor 40 seconds at a time until all is well combined forming a the falafel mixture.
- Transfer the falafel mixture to a container and cover tightly. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or (up to one whole night) until ready to cook.
- Just before frying, add the baking powder and sesame seeds to the falafel mixture and stir with a spoon.
- Scoop tablespoonfuls of the falafel mixture and form into patties (1/2 inch in thickness each). It helps to have wet hands as you form the patties.
- Fill a medium saucepan 3 inches up with oil. Heat the oil on medium-high until it bubbles softly. Carefully drop the falafel patties in the oil, let them fry for about 3 to 5 minutes or so until crispy and medium brown on the outside. Avoid crowding the falafel in the saucepan, fry them in batches if necessary.
- Place the fried falafel patties in a colander or plate lined with paper towels to drain.
- Serve falafel hot next to other small plates; or assemble the falafel patties in pita bread with tahini or hummus, arugula, tomato and cucumbers. Enjoy!
Notes
- Cook’s Tip: You need to start with dry chickpeas, do not use canned chickpeas here. You will need to begin soaking the chickpeas overnight, allow up to 24 hours.
- Falafel Recipe variations: Variations of this recipe may call for flour or eggs. If you prefer, you can add 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp of flour to the falafel mix or 1 egg. I did not use either, and the falafel mixture stayed well together.
- Pro Tip for Frying: When you fry the falafel patties, you want to achieve a deep golden brown color on the outside. More importantly, the patties need to be fully done on the inside. Your frying oil needs to be at 375 degrees F, for my stove, that was at a medium-high temp. Be sure to test your first batch and adjust the frying time as needed.
- Have an air fryer? Try this air fryer falafel recipe.
- Popular falafel sauce: tahini sauce is what is traditionally used with falafel. I use organic tahini paste by Soom, and here is my tahini sauce recipe.
- Baked Falafel Option: If you prefer, you can bake the falafel patties in a 350 degree F heated oven for about 15-20 minutes, turning them over midway through. Use a lightly oiled sheet pan, and you might like to give the patties a quick brush of extra virgin olive oil before baking.
- Pro-Tip for Make-Ahead: To make ahead and freeze, prepare the falafel mixture and divide into patties (up to step #6). Place the patties on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and freeze. When they harden, you can transfer the falafel patties into a freezer bag. They will keep well in the freezer for a month or so. You can fry or bake them from frozen.
- Visit our online shop to browse all-natural and organic spices, including cumin and coriander; organic tahini paste; extra virgin olive oils and more!
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Entree
- Method: Fried or Baked
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
*This post first appeared on The Mediterranean Dish in 2015 and has been recently updated with new information and media for readers’ benefit.
Absolutely delicious. First time making falafel and they turned out perfect. Love at first bite. Thank you
Yay! Great to hear!
So easy to make and super delicious. If using tinned chickpeas is stead of dry, bake the falafels as if fried they will fall apart. But for best flavour use dry chickpeas and deep fry. Thanks for sharing the recipe Suzy!
I tried this recipe and it worked out great! I did have to process the chickpeas in batches and I will probably use a little less garlic next time. Other than that, I think it was perfect. My biggest fear was getting dry falafel but they were just right 🙂
Awesome! Thanks, Giuliana!
This looks amazing! Is there a brand of store bought pita you recommend (I know you have a recipe but I won’t have time to make the pita). Thanks!
Hi, Rebekah. We don’t really have a store-bought brand we absolutely love. If you don’t have time to make it, we recommend trying to find some pretty freshly baked from a local bakery.
Hi Suzy,
I found you on YouTube. Love all of your videos.
I made your falafel recipe. First time I’ve made this dish. So yummy!!
Q: is the falafel mixture supposed to be a little damp? It did fry good tho.
I also made your chick peas and fried eggplant salad. Me and hubby love it.
Looking forward to making more of your wonderful recipes.
Thanks, Sandy
Hi, Sandy. Yes, in my experience, the mixture is a little damp before frying. Glad it turned out for you the first time you made it! I know it can be a labor of love :).
***Update***
I made the falafel last and OMG WOW!! I never realized how easy it could be to make my own. A couple of notes on my process. I had to add my chick peas to the food processor in batches. I did add a small amount of water to allow the mixture to blend with greater ease (sparingly though). I used the “curly” parsley as I prefer the texture and boldness of the flavour for a recipe like this. Unfortunately I forgot to add the baking powder & sesame seeds after I took the mixture out of the fridge (next time!). I chose olive oil to fry the falafel in and they turned out just beautifully. The whole family enjoyed these little gems. I crumbled mine into fattoush salad. Next time I will make the falafel sauce (tahini sauce) and enjoy in a pita. I had more then enough in this recipe for dinner with left overs as well as froze half the batch as indicated in the recipe instructions.
Thanks so much for sharing, Nikki! Love the idea of crumbling these over some fattoush!
Super excited to try this falafel recipe! I have tried the hummous & fattoush which are fabulous. Now I usually bake my food not fry. What type of oil do you recommend?
We have success using grapeseed and EVOOs with this one!
My falafel turned into pea soup in the oil despite following the recipe 100%. What a mess! Any suggestions as to what went wrong? Oil was correct temperature- falafel were shaped into tidy little balls that we’re holding their own
Hi, Nicola. If you followed every single tip listed here, then it’s hard to say what may have gone wrong without being there. You may want to scroll through the comments/responses here to see if there might be any other tricks you may not have thought of.
Wow can’t wait to try this. Never realized I could easily make my own falafel with dried chick peas!!! How about roasting dried chick peas…can it be done by merely soaking them first also?
Hi, Debbi! You can definitely roast dry chickpeas. Check out the section entitled “Can you use dried chickpeas instead of canned?” in our Crispy Roasted Chickpeas post for all of the details. Enjoy!
I don’t know what I did wrong. I followed the recipe exactly but the mixture was dry and wouldn’t hold together
In the instruction you put baking powder. In the ingredient list you have baking soda.
Hi, Stella. We actually use both baking soda and baking powder here. The baking soda is used when soaking the chickpeas, and the baking powder is added to the mixture before forming the patties.
Hi, I enjoyed your video, but have a question about the tahini sauce.
Do you have a receipt for that?
I live in Aguascalientes, Mexico, but would be making this for my girlfriends sister and brother in law for Christmas dinner.
Thank You.
We definitely have a tahini sauce recipe. You can find it here. Enjoy!
Hi, is it possible to make these falafel & fry in a frying pan instead of in a deap fat fryer? We don’t do any deep fat frying & it’s an awful of oil to use doing just one dish. Thank you.
I made these tonight in a cast iron skillet, shallow fry. Flipped once. They were delicious!!!!!😊
i just received a Moroccan Tagine. Please give me some help with cooking with it. I can’t wait to try it sounds yummy and fun.
I tried this recipe last night. Yes, it did seem like it took a “long” time to make….mostly because of the time to let the chickpeas soak. It wasn’t clear what the consistency of the beans should be after the 18 (written recipe) to 24 hour (in all the pieces here) soak. After more than 24 hrs, mine were still pretty hard. Maybe it should be noted in the written recipe what the expectation is after soaking. At any rate, I was frustrated, thinking the peas were supposed to be softer, so I threw them in the crockpot on low for 2 1/2 hours. Maybe they were too soft at this point?…. but they weren’t mushy/soft.
I have a 6cup food processor. It was impossible mix this in one batch. Once I got a grip on this issue, I took half of the mixture out and mixed in two sections, then added them back together to blend. The final consistency seemed like it looked like photo, but was on the dry side. Flavor wise…yes, wonderful!
Please edit the recipe to at least suggest a frying oil without having to scroll through all the comments. That being said, I tried a baked version. I did lightly oil the pan and brush the tops with olive oil, but some fell apart and they were pretty dry, but flavorful. I’m thinking it’s partly because my peas were “cooked” and maybe overmixed? And I baked them vs frying. Oh, and I forgot the baking powder to fluff them up!
I will be trying this again because I think it’s worth it get it right. Practice makes perfect, right?
Thanks for all the feedback, Jennifer! We appreciate it!
These were delicious but a pain in the a** to make because we don’t have a food processor and had to resort to the blender instead, which forced us to add some water in order to make the mixture blend at all, and then we had to figure out how to get rid of the water. So I’m gonna share some tips for those who might be in the same situation.
We ended up having to add about a cup of water in total. After some trial and error, we ended up adding about 3 tablespoons of flour which didn’t really help, and eventually we resorted to drying the “dough” in the oven for about 5 minutes at around 170 Celsius (at that point it started sticking to the pan but wasn’t stuck yet). Even though it was still moist, it was definitely much better than before, and could easily be shaped into patties. Then we deep fried these patties according to the recipe, and they didn’t fall apart at all and came out great. All in all these falafels were 5 hours of work for us, but that’s because we spent several hours trying to air dry them (and even using a fan) before we realized that that wasn’t gonna work hahaha.
I’m so glad all your hard work was worth it! Thank you for sharing your tips!