{"id":192596,"title":"Authentic Falafel","modified":"2026-10-21T13:25:35+02:00","plain":"Palestinian falafel made with raw chickpeas, fresh herbs and cumin, fried, then served in pita bread with tahini sauce.\n\n\n\nOn Saturday mornings, the smell of frying oil and cumin makes you hungry before you\u2019ve even had your coffee. The falafel come out of the oil piping hot, their craggy crust crackling as you bite in and giving way to a soft green interior full of parsley and cilantro. \n\n\n\nTuck them into a warm pita with a spoonful of tahini sauce, a few crunchy vegetables and some nice sour pickles. The surprise comes with the first bite: so much lightness from chickpeas that have never seen a pot.\n\n\n\nFor a mezze spread, add some baba ganoush made with pan-fried eggplant\n\n\n\nWhat Is Falafel?\n\n\n\nFalafel is a fried ball of dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and then blended raw with onion, garlic, flat-leaf parsley, fresh cilantro and spices. The mixture is deliberately kept grainy, a little coarser than hummus. It contains no flour or egg: the raw starch in the chickpeas binds it in the hot oil. The dish is entirely plant-based, so it belongs with the other legume recipes.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe word is Arabic, and its origin is still debated. One theory links it to the Coptic pha la phel, \u201cwith many beans,\u201d another to ful, Arabic for fava bean. In Egypt, people generally say ta\u2019meya, except in Alexandria, which has kept the name falafel.\n\n\n\nFrom Egyptian Ta\u2019meya to the Stalls of Jerusalem\n\n\n\nFalafel started out in Egypt, as a patty made from dried split fava beans. One theory makes it a Lenten dish of the Coptic Christians, who went without meat during fasts, while another has it born in Alexandria at the end of the 19th century. After World War I, the recipe spread to the Levant: Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.\n\n\n\nAnother street fritter, from India this time: onion pakoras\n\n\n\nIn the Levant, chickpeas are more common than fava beans, so cooks made the switch. You can taste the difference: fava bean ta\u2019meya is light and very green inside, while chickpea falafel has a nuttier flavor and a crunchier crust. It\u2019s this version that caught on in Europe and America.\n\n\n\nIn Jerusalem\u2019s Old City, falafel is eaten for breakfast. Vendors fry it in the morning and sell it at their stalls, in paper bags filled according to how much you want to spend. At home, people like to make it on weekends, with chickpeas put to soak the night before.\n\n\n\nThe Main Ingredients in Falafel\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEverything rests on 250 g of dried chickpeas. They soak overnight, doubling or tripling in volume, then go into the food processor raw. Cooked or canned chickpeas would give you a mixture that falls apart in the oil. If you can find dried split fava beans at a Middle Eastern grocery store, they can replace up to half the chickpeas.\n\n\n\nThe onion and garlic bring the flavor, and the flat-leaf parsley and fresh cilantro give the inside its green color. A red or green chile adds heat, but it\u2019s optional. For spices, there\u2019s ground cumin (not to be confused with black cumin), ground coriander and salt. The baking powder goes in last, just before frying, to lighten the inside.\n\n\n\nGot leftover chickpeas? Make them crispy in the air fryer\n\n\n\nAt the table, everyone fills their own pita with falafel, tahini sauce, assorted vegetables and pickles. Tahini sauce, made from a paste of sesame seeds, adds a creamy, slightly bitter note. The tang of the pickles cuts through the richness of the fried food.\n\n\n\nTechnique Tips for Successful Falafel\n\n\n\nStop the food processor before the mixture turns smooth. It should stay a little grainy, or the falafel will come out dense and heavy.\n\n\n\nIf you have a falafel scoop, drop the balls straight into the oil. If not, roll walnut-sized balls between your hands, then flatten them very slightly between your palms.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHeat 5 to 7 cm of oil to 180 \u00b0C. Fry without crowding the wok, so the oil doesn\u2019t cool down, for about 5 minutes, until deep golden brown.\n\n\n\nMore chickpeas on the menu? Try the chickpea curry\n\n\n\nEat the falafel as soon as they come out of the oil, while the crust is still crackly. Without the baking powder, the mixture keeps for a few days in the fridge or a few months in the freezer: just add the baking powder when you\u2019re ready to fry.\n\n\n\n\n\n\tAuthentic Falafel\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tSoaking250 g chickpeas (dried)Falafel Mixture1 onion2 small garlic cloves2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, (chopped)2 tablespoons cilantro (fresh, chopped)1 chili pepper (red or green, optional)1 teaspoon cumin (ground)1 teaspoon coriander (ground)1 teaspoon saltFrying and ServingVegetable oil, (5 to 7 cm deep in the wok or frying pan)1 teaspoon baking powderPita breadTahini sauceAssorted vegetablesPickles\t\n\t\n\t\tSoakingThe day before, put the dried chickpeas in a large mixing bowl and cover them with plenty of water: they will double or even triple in size.Let soak overnight.The next day, drain the soaked chickpeas without cooking them: they are blended raw. Cooked or canned chickpeas would make a mixture that falls apart in the oil.Falafel MixturePut the onion, garlic, parsley, fresh cilantro and chili pepper in the bowl of the food processor.Process until everything is finely chopped.Add the drained chickpeas.Process again, stopping now and then to scrape down the sides of the bowl, until everything forms a coarse paste.Stop before the mixture turns smooth: it should stay a little grainier than hummus, which is what keeps the falafel light and fluffy.Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl.Add the cumin, ground coriander and salt.Mix until well combined.At this point, if you are not frying the falafel right away, the mixture will keep for a few days in the refrigerator or a few months in the freezer.Frying and ServingPour the oil into a large wok or a large frying pan.Heat it over medium-high heat until it reaches 180\u00b0C.While the oil heats, sprinkle the baking powder over the mixture and mix well: the baking powder goes in only now, just before frying.Using a falafel scoop, drop the balls one at a time into the hot oil, without overcrowding the pan, so the oil does not cool down.If you do not have a falafel scoop, roll the mixture between your hands into walnut-sized balls, then flatten them very slightly between your palms before lowering them into the oil.Fry for about 5 minutes, until the falafel are a deep golden brown.Remove them from the oil with a skimmer.Drain them on paper towels.Serve with the pita bread, tahini sauce, assorted vegetables and pickles.\t\n\t\n\t\tA Palestinian recipe, the way falafel is eaten for breakfast in the Old City of Jerusalem, where it is bought at a stall, in paper bags filled according to how much you want to spend. Made at home, falafel is a nice thing to make on the weekend, to recapture that breakfast.\nThe key point: the chickpeas are never cooked. They are only soaked overnight, drained, then blended raw with the herbs and aromatics, and it is their raw starch that holds the mixture together during frying, with no flour or egg.\nFalafel can also be made with a mix of dried chickpeas and dried split fava beans. Dried split fava beans are hard to find outside Middle Eastern grocery stores, which is why this recipe uses only chickpeas. If you have fava beans, they can replace up to half of the chickpeas.\n\t\n\t\n\t\tPlat principalAsiatique","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}