The Perfect Falafel Recipe (the Ottolenghi Way)
- niko
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Soak: overnight | Prep: 15 min | Cook: 15 min
I usually refrain from adopting grandiose names for my posts, but this time I will have to make an exception. Falafel was always my favourite Middle Eastern comfort food: so simple in its concept yet so tasty, especially if you get it right. I have attempted to make falafel at home, following various online recipes or asking tips from falafel vendors in street stalls, often with little success. However, I never rested, seeking the perfect recipe until the end. It took me a couple of trips to the Middle East on a falafel pilgrimage, during which I ate my way through several countries, took classes with falafel experts, and read cookbooks to reach perfection... which I now share in this post.
The goodness of humble falafel:
☑️ It's made of cheap, everyday ingredients you can find in your local grocery store
☑️ It's super tasty and gets your kids to eat plant protein and greens (parsley-coriander) at once.
☑️ You can make ahead and freeze to cook anytime
☑️ They are quickly prepared and will impress your guests as an appetiser or party food (serve with a dip like hummus or tahini-yoghurt sauce)
☑️ Superbly tasty even for coriander haters (I know a few out there, how dare you? 😜) - I absolutely guarantee this recipe won't even tickle your sensitive anti-coriander taste buds
The Perfect Falafel Recipe
Why the Ottolenghi way? This recipe primarily comes from my ultimate source for Middle Eastern food, Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's cookbook "Jerusalem," which, by the way, I highly recommend adding to your collection if you love Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine. Every single recipe in this book is an absolute gem! Tap my link and add it to your Amazon basket straight away!
I've complemented the recipe with some tricks and twists I learned while watching endless YouTube videos, eating the lot (of course), or taking cooking classes during my trips to the Middle East. So make sure you read the tips at the end and take this seriously. A friend recently said these falafels were better than any good falafel shack she had eaten in London so far!
Ingredients (makes around 15 falafels)
250g dried chickpeas
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 medium onion (around 80g)
1 garlic clove
1 cup (15g) fresh parsley, leaves only
1 cup (15g) fresh coriander, leaves only - reduce to 1/2 cup if you dislike coriander.
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/3 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp baking powder
1.5 tbsp plain flour
salt and pepper
Vegetable oil for deep frying (around 700ml)
Optionally: a fresh green chilli pepper, sesame seeds and/or coriander seeds
Method
The night before, put the chickpeas in a large bowl, top up with cold potable water (around 3 times their volume) and 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda (which will prevent skin peeling). Cover with a towel and let them soak overnight (no fridge needed). Read my tips at the end of the post about chickpea quality.
The next day, drain the chickpeas (discard any weird-looking ones) and toss them in a food processor (or a meat grinder) with the onion, garlic, parsley and coriander. If you use a meat grinder, pass it twice. If you use food processor, blitz for roughly 30 seconds (scraping the sides when needed) until it's finely ground and looks like a well-formed batter, not very crumbly, not too mushy. If your food processor is small, do it in batches.
Try the structural test in my tips further down below the post.
Once processed, transfer to the bowl and mix the spices, baking powder, salt and pepper, the flour and a couple of splashes of water. Mix with your hand until it's smooth and uniform, and a ball can be formed and hold its shape. Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for at least 30-45 min or until you are ready to cook or freeze in an airtight container.
Fill a deep medium-sized saucepan with enough oil (up to 7cm) and heat the oil to 170-180 °C. See my oil tips below.
With wet hands, pass a tablespoon of the mixture in your palm, bounce a couple of times between your palms and form a ball the size of a ping-pong or golf ball. If you are serious about falafel, you should consider a falafel scoop, although a wet ice cream scoop with easy trigger (ideally medium size) will also do the job. Press them well as they tend to crumble and break.
Deep-fry in batches - they should stay in the oil for 4-6 minutes, until a brown skin is formed and they are cooked through.
Drain the falafels using a sieve or on a kitchen tissue-lined plate and serve with my delicious tahini-yoghurt sauce in the next section 👇🏻
Tahini Yoghurt Dip
Uber tasty cooling dip, ready in 5 minutes.
Ingredients:
3 tbsp (heaped) Greek Yoghurt
1 tbsp tahini
1/2 garlic clove, mashed
5 fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses (or soy sauce)
1 tsp honey or agave syrup
1 tbsp olive oil
A squeeze of lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
Method: Put all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until incorporated and smooth.
Serve with sprinkled pomegranate seeds. Keeps well in an air-tight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.
Tips
Equipment Shopping List
This post contains affiliate links. By clicking and purchasing through the links, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This allows me to keep the site up to date and do more research on food and travel. Thanks for reading!
Needless to mention that a good quality food processor (like the multifunction XL Magimix) is an investment totally worth the extra penny. It will not just mix falafel batter, but also finely chop herbs, nuts and onions, make pesto, or nut-butters.
Smaller processors and multitools like the Ninja 3-in-1 could also work.
Get the right oil temperature for frying the falafels using a ThermaStick probe, or opt for the Babacom Thermometer with the external long wire probe for easier hands-free operations.
An assortment of good quality stainless steel bowls of various sizes with lid is uber useful, not just for this recipe but also for storing, fermenting dough for pizza or marinating meat.
A fine mesh sieve/strainer is always essential for your arsenal. Not just to drain your falafels, but also sift flours (for airy light cakes and breads) or wash grains like rice and finer quinoa for your quinoa dishes.
A skimmer ladle is a useful tool for picking up the falafels from the pan after they are fried, but also for skimming off impurities when cooking legumes or meats.
The perfect tool for shaping falafel balls is a medium Bixel ice-cream scoop with an easy trigger. A large scoop will result in big, unevenly cooked (inside) falafels. But you may need the large anyway for your ice-cream scoops in the summer and the small for making some fun-sized party bite falafels 😉
I am sure you have seen street vendors making falafel using this weird press. A tool like the Joam falafel scoop feels more authentic and gives this characteristic round, flat disc shape, which you may find a better fit for a sandwich.
Comments