Baked Falafel

I’m going to be honest here, and say, this is not my recipe. But… I have no idea whose it is. It has been sitting in my recipe folder for well over a year now, just the recipe printed on a page, no URL at the bottom, nothing. I guess I cut-and-pasted it into a word document from somewhere on the interwebs. So, if you recognise it, please let me know so I can attribute it properly.

I am a massive fan of Middle Eastern food, and falafels in particular. But what I am not a fan of, is deep frying at home. Too. Freaking. Scary. Mr Alphie is totally unfussed by deep frying however, so I usually have to wait for him to be home from FIFO before I can indulge my habit. If you’ve ever tried baking falafels made from a dried box-mix, you will know my pain. They are like rocks.

As a result, I collect falafel recipes in much the same way as others might collect coins, comic books, or My Little Ponies… However, I have not really had much success in the past. Which has kind of put me off, and I will admit, I have resorted to the pre-made ones from the supermarket fridge section on more than one occasion (FYI, Woolies Macro SmokeyEggplant Falafel are pretty good, and Yumi's are a close second.)

The original recipe was a bit more manual, requiring you to finely chop the onions, garlic and herbs, and mashing the chickpeas in with a potato masher. I don’t have time for that kind of malarkey mid-week, especially when there is an easier option. And, to be honest, I don’t think there would be a noticeable difference in the end result.

Baked falafel

• 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas (or 1 can)
• ½ onion, peeled
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 6-ish stalks parsley
• 3-ish stalks coriander
• 2 tbs flour – plain, wholemeal, whatever (I used atta)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground coriander seed
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 200°C.

In a food processor, chop up the onion & garlic til fine. (If you have a small bowl attachment for your food processor, I’d use it for this – there’s not much mixture & I was constantly scraping the sides of mine). Add the fresh herbs, and chop again.

Add the remaining ingredients, and pulse until just combined. It should still be quite chunky.

Place spoonfuls of the mixture on a tray with baking paper. Squirt each one with an olive-oil spray, and bake for 15 minutes. Turn each one over, squirt again with the olive oil, and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until browned.

Delish as they are; with tabouli, hummus and flat bread; or use to fill a wrap; or top a salad.

Makes 10 or so falafels.

Enjoy!