Easy Baked Falafel with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce

  4.8 – 14 reviews  

Try this Middle Eastern sandwich made with falafel that has been oven-fried to save calories. It is filled with chickpea and spice “meatballs.” Serve with cucumber slices, chopped tomatoes, lettuce, and pita pockets or wedges that have been grilled.

Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 1 hr
Servings: 4
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  1. cooking spray
  2. 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  3. 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  4. ¾ onion, diced
  5. ¼ cup packed chopped fresh cilantro
  6. ¼ cup packed chopped fresh parsley
  7. 3 cloves garlic, smashed
  8. 1 small lemon, zested
  9. ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  10. ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  11. ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
  12. ½ teaspoon baking powder
  13. ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
  14. 1 egg, beaten
  15. ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
  16. ¼ cup seeded and minced cucumber, squeezed dry
  17. 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  18. 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  19. salt to taste
  20. 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste

Instructions

  1. Coat a 9×13-inch metal baking pan with cooking spray and 1 tablespoon olive oil and place inside the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). C
  2. Combine chickpeas, onion, cilantro, parsley, garlic, lemon zest, cumin, salt, red pepper flakes, and baking powder in a food processor. Pulse until minced but not yet pasty. Transfer to a bowl and stir in flour and egg until fully incorporated.
  3. Remove baking pan from the oven. Drop golfball-sized portions of chickpea mixture onto the hot pan.
  4. Bake in the preheated oven 15 to 20 minutes. Brush falafel with remaining olive oil and flip over. Continue baking until golden on both sides, 15 to 20 minutes more.
  5. Meanwhile, combine yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, and garlic in a bowl. Season with salt and cayenne pepper. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
  6. Serve falafel with yogurt sauce.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 250 kcal
Carbohydrate 29 g
Cholesterol 47 mg
Dietary Fiber 4 g
Protein 8 g
Saturated Fat 3 g
Sodium 587 mg
Sugars 2 g
Fat 12 g
Unsaturated Fat 0 g

Reviews

Alex Bennett
Delicious and relatively quick and easy. My family liked them so much, I made a second batch the next night. I don’t have a food processor though. The first night, I tried the blender, but that didn’t work very well. The second night I just mashed the chickpeas with a fork and minced the other ingredients. I flattened mine to fit better in the pita. I made the yogurt sauce also.
Cynthia Morales
Delicious!
Mark Lawrence
Added extra cumin powder, substituted ground cayenne powder for red pepper flakes. Worked out well. I also didn’t make up the accompanying yogurt sauce as I didn’t have fresh cucumber nor plain yogurt, so instead made a sauce of four parts sour cream and one part (leftover) Alabama White BBQ Sauce. It went well with the Falafel.
Cynthia Cochran
Delicious! I made sliders, not golf balls. Next time, I’ll double the cucumber sauce.
April Blake
Easy and good!
David Mathis
Easy to make and enjoyable to eat.
Stephanie Navarro
super good! i loved this. i am 13 years old in 2021, and this was easy to cook, healthy, and TASTY!
James Guerra
This is a tasty recipe. I may have made the balls too large because when I sprayed and flipped them, three of them broke apart. I. will try to mold them as patties next t time to see if that fixes the crumbling. I also will try adding some toasted sesame seeds to the mix next time. I was missing the Tahini taste, but not the calories. These taste just fine as is and I love the lemony flavor in them.
Joseph Ochoa
I made the falafel but not the sauce (already had that). It was easy and delicious.
Mark Spence
No changes. Fairly easy recipe and great taste. Eat them before I thought to take a pic.
Melissa Carlson
This was fairly easy to make and was tasty! I would add more spice next time but I used dry beans so it may have been a little light on salt. They were filling and I would definitely make it again.
Melissa Bowman
Delicious and easy to make! Even my meat-eater husband enjoyed them!
Terry Smith
Really good flavor, mine didn’t stay round but it’s to be expected for some flattening to occur on a baking sheet. Fits better in a pita anyway. I didn’t make the yogurt sauce because I had my own Tzatziki recipe. Judging by the measurements in this recipe, make more, you can never have enough yogurt sauce.
William Harris
Made as written and these turned out excellent! No changes necessary.

 

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