Egyptian falafel, or ta’ameya, is one of Egypt’s all-time favorite street foods. The majority of the Middle East uses ground chickpeas to make falafel. However, we prepare it with dried fava beans in Egypt. Tahini sauce, tomato, onions, and pita bread are the ideal side dishes for these.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 8 hrs |
| Total Time: | 8 hrs 35 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 50 falafel |
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried split fava beans
- 1 red onion, quartered
- ½ cup fresh parsley
- ½ cup fresh cilantro
- ½ cup fresh dill
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 cup sesame seeds (Optional)
- 1 quart vegetable oil for frying, or as needed
Instructions
- Place fava beans into large bowl and cover with several inches of water. Let soak, 8 hours to overnight. Drain.
- Combine soaked fava beans, red onion, parsley, cilantro, dill, garlic, coriander, salt, and cumin in a food processor; process to a dough-like consistency.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add sesame seeds; cook, stirring occasionally, until toasted, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large plate.
- Shape fava bean mixture into about 50 balls. Roll balls in sesame seeds to coat.
- Fill a large saucepan 1/4 full with oil; heat over medium heat. Fry fava bean balls in batches until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels.
- You can substitute 1/2 of the fava beans with chickpeas if you are used to that type of falafel.
- We have determined the nutritional value of oil for frying based on a retention value of 10% after cooking. Amount will vary depending on cooking time and temperature, ingredient density, and specific type of oil used.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 814 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 8 g |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 402 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 87 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Delicious
This is not correct. The batter should be whipped in a stand mixer to make it light and fluffy. Also leeks,coriander and spring onions are the usual ingredients in these and the batter should be an incredible green colour. Also someone below mentioned that you cannot use canned chickpeas with traditional falafel. Yes you can (sorry no pun intended) canned chickpeas make great falafel
Followed recipe precisely. The “dough” was way too wet and would not hold together. Even after squeezing out moisture through a cloth, the balls just crumbled upon turning. Wound up having to break apart the balls and served it as a crumble to add to hummus and tzatziki. Flavor was decent, would try another recipe instead.
I don’t think I’ll ever go back to chickpea falafel! Chickpea falafel can have a flat or boring flavor sometimes so it’s more like a base for a dish than the main attraction (I know, I’ve just elicited the ire of the entire Levant but hey, I’m Persian so what else is new?). The fava beans have a funkier flavor and result in a creamier texture, as opposed the more typically grainy falafel. I found it most efficient to use a cookie dough/ice cream scooper to shape the balls and then dip the exposed part of the batter in sesame seeds before releasing the scoop onto a slotted spoon to submerge in the oil. And FYI–the fava beans really stink up the frying oil so I wouldn’t save the oil to fry anything else, unless you’ll be serving it with the taameya. Also, if you’re not sure where to find the fava beans, check your Mexican grocer. Mine had the split and whole ones and for this recipe you’ll want the split ones (which are yellow). You can also buy the whole fava beans, which are brown, and skin them after soaking but that a lot of work. I’ll definitely make this again!
I love Falafel and it was my first time making Ta’ameya with fava beans. It tastes absolutely amazing. I used a deep fryer instead because I found it easier for the shape to stay together. I just tried it out while remaking a day in Cairo at home
5 stars From my Egyptian Husband ! Omitted the Dill and Sesame Seeds and made a simple tahini sauce. Served with Pita and all the traditional accompaniments! Rabena Ka-Lieky Habibity
second time making this recipe. I didnt have any fresh herbs so I used dried. we added baking powder to the dough. when we form them into patties we put a tiny bit of water on the outside while forming them, add the sesame seeds then deep fry them. no issues of falling apart. I even brushed a couple with a small amount of olive oil and baked them, they turned out wonderful. reminds my Egyptian husband of home. thank you for this recipe!
Wonderful, authentic recipe!
I made this the other night and as other people have said, the taste was good (I used chickpeas since that’s what I had) but they completely fell apart while cooking. I read on another site that you CANNOT use canned or cooked chickpeas(which I did) and you should stick it in the fridge again for about an hour before cooking, so, that answers that. I gave it 3 stars because I feel that’s an important note left out and even though it tasted good, it wasn’t great. I’ll try again though to make it better.
Tasted great, but I had an issue with consistency. I wound up baking these instead of frying them as they sort of melted in the pan. Sadly, baking dried the recipe out a bit, so I would need to think of new ways to make this recipe work.
Came out fabulous! The mix held together well and fried up nicely. Delicious flavor. I only had a white onion, but that worked out just fine. I know I should’t change the recipe, but thought the dill would be strange, so I did omit that. The cilantro and parsley added the perfect green color and herb flavor for me. This will be a new staple food!
These were delicious, but I could not get them to stay together once I began frying them. The mixture came together beautifully and held together great until I put them in the oil. They never really crisped up and they began falling apart. Still tasted great though. I’m gonna try to figure out how to keep them together better next time b/c they are definitely worth trying again! Thanks for sharing. 🙂