Mr. Falafels Falafel
1 cup dried chickpeas (garbanzos) soaked in 5 cups of water for 25 hours
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely minced onion
2 tablespoon finely minced parsley
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 cloves garlic
Freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
a pinch (or more) of cayenne pepper
oil for frying (i.e. canola, sunflower, avocado)
This recipe was originally posted on Vegwebs forums by the user MrFalafel whilst vegweb had forums. Its possibly some of the best falafel ever.
Drain the chickpeas and put them into the container of a good processor or blender. Add the baking soda and salt. Turn the machine on and blend until you have the texture of coarse bread crumbs or fine bulgur wheat. You should NOT have a paste.
Empty the chickpeas into a bowl. Add the onion, parsley, cumin, coriander, garlic, black pepper, lemon juice, and cayenne. Mix gently with a fork. Do not pat down. This mixture should be loose and crumbly.
Put 2 inches of oil in a wok or other utensil for deep frying and set to a heat on a medium-low flame. You need a temperature of 350 to 375 degrees F. While the oil heats, form the first batch of patties. Using a very light touch, form patties that are about 2 1/4 inches in diameter, about 3/4 inch thick in the center and less so at the edges. Do not pat down or try to be too neat. The patties should just about hold together. Put as many patties into the hot oil as the utensil will hold in a single layer. Fry about 4 minutes or until the patties a reddish brown on both sides. Turn at least once during the frying process. When the patties are done, remove them with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel. do all of the patties this way.
Thats pretty much it. Heres some tips:
1.) Use the right oil: Olive oil is not good for frying, due to its low smoke point. Choose an oil with a higher smoke point, such as Canola, sunflower or avocado oil.
2.) Use fresh herbs & spices where possible. The fresher they are, the better they taste
3.) If you substitute dried chickpeas with canned, don't add salt, since canned chickpeas contain salt anyway.
4.) Falafel is best served in a pita with salad.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Chickpeas can be soaked overnight instead of 25 hours.
I kind of messed this up (or my blender did). I might have not let the beans dry enough, because I ended up with a partially-paste, partially whole beans mix in my kind of crappy blender. I mixed everything together (left out the salt) and baked them coated with olive oil for 20 minutes or so. They taste ok, maybe better with some tomato or something...oh well.
i would love to try this falafel recipe only bake instead of frying. will they still hold its shape? (im assuming they would, i have baked falafel before using the boxed mix)
oh and about how many does this recipe yield? thanks!
wikipedia.org Smoke_point
goodeatsfanpage.com smoking points
just google smoke points... certain types of the same oil have drastically different smoke points. olive oil is not as bad as people think...
I just made these again for lunch and as usual they were wonderful, tasty and left me wanting more. I served them in homemade pita bread with lettuce and grated carrot. If you like falafel, throw out the boxed mix and try these.
I have made this Falafel recipe many times and have never had them fall apart. I have taken them to parties and they were gobbled up by vegetarians and meat eaters who came back for seconds. The best recipe I've ever used.
If another person tells me not to fry things in olive oil I will scream. You shouldn't fry in salad-grade oil, certainly (low acid=low stability) but I live on the Mediterranean and people have fried all kinds of things in olive oil for millenia. It's delicious and it doesn't burn if you use the right grade. Love the falafel, by the way.