These flavorful baked falafel go well in a pita, atop a salad, or just by themselves. They are well-seasoned, somewhat spicy, and served with a refreshing tzatziki sauce. Enjoy!
| Prep Time: | 40 mins |
| Cook Time: | 50 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (32 ounce) container Greek yogurt
- 1 large cucumber, peeled and finely chopped
- ⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon white sugar (Optional)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 8 leaves fresh mint, finely chopped, or more to taste
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
- 2 whole jalapeno peppers
- ½ bunch parsley
- 1 bunch green onions, root ends removed
- 4 cloves peeled garlic
- 3 (16 ounce) cans chickpeas – rinsed, drained, and dried
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon Greek seasoning
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon salt, divided
- ½ tablespoon smoked paprika
- ½ tablespoon ground black pepper
- ½ tablespoon chile powder
- 1 cup chickpea flour
- ½ cup olive oil, divided
Instructions
- Stir yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, garlic powder, sugar, lemon zest, mint, and dill together in a bowl. Adjust seasonings to taste and refrigerate tzatziki until ready to serve with falafel.
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
- Combine jalapeno peppers, parsley, green onions, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped and fully blended. Scrape mixture down and add chickpeas. Pulse several times until just blended and chickpeas are broken up, but texture is still rough; do not overblend. Transfer mixture to a large bowl.
- Add eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest, Greek seasoning, cumin, 1/2 tablespoon salt, paprika, pepper, and chili powder to the chickpea mixture. Stir with a spatula until fully incorporated. Add chickpea flour a few tablespoons at a time and stir; the final mixture should be wet, but not falling apart when handled. Place bowl in the freezer, uncovered, to firm up mixture, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and brush with some olive oil.
- Remove chickpea mixture from freezer and form into 20 to 24 small balls and place on the prepared baking sheet. Brush falafel with remaining olive oil and sprinkle with remaining salt.
- Bake in the preheated oven until falafel are dry and slightly darker brown in color, about 45 minutes. Turn on the broiler and continue baking until tops are crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Serve with tzatziki.
- Broiling the falafel is optional.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 382 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 40 g |
| Cholesterol | 44 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 7 g |
| Protein | 14 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 1106 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 19 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was delicious. My only caveat is that my over way over baked it, so I will have to keep an eye on it next time. Other than that, it was great.
This recipe is an alternate I tried thinking it would be tastier. It was more time consuming to make, the texture was very grainy and outshined the flavor. Sadly we threw it out.
I loved this! The only feed back I got was that there was too much lemon … I didn’t think so. This make a LOT! I wanted to stay true to the original ratio of ingredients so I didn’t adjust now I’m looking for other thing I can use it on before it goes bad. Worked well on tomato omelet.
Well seasoned as described. This recipe has potential but I think it needs some tweaks. I let my tzatziki sit in the refrigerate overnight but it was still somewhat bland. It was in desperate need of salt and could have used more dill as well. The falafel itself had a lot of flavor but shaping them into balls was time consuming and quite messy. I made my balls fairly big (think average meatball) and I’m glad I checked them after 30 minutes instead of waiting the full 45. They were still edible but were definitely overcooked. 45 minutes plus 5 minutes under the broiler and they would have been inedible. While this recipe may have potential, the time it took to prepare them is not worth another try for me. Sorry.