I was so proud of myself after successfully making this chickpea falafel. (Is that plural or singular? Do you say “falafels” or “falafel” if you’re referring to more than one of these savory balls of goodness or what? Maybe it is like the word “shrimp?”) Falafel is something that I’ve eaten often and really enjoyed.

chickpea falafel

There was this great hole-in-the-wall place in the East Village in New York called “Damascus Falafel” that made these incredible falafel sandwiches called, you guessed it, “Damascus Falafel” that had a few of these lovely balls tossed together with tabuli salad, hummus, baba ghanoush, olives, preserved peppers, feta, tahini dressing all wrapped together in an oversized pita bread. It was wonderful!!!

Making them from scratch seemed like a whole different thing. I used the recipe in Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey. Najmieh says that falafel is/are originally from Egypt, which I didn’t know. I would have guessed… Damascus? Joumana from T of B agrees though her account makes the attribution sound less than certain.

Silk Road Cooking describes two kinds of falafel: those made of fava and those from chickpea. Supposedly the priests refused to eat those from chickpea and would only dine on the ones made of fava. That’s news to me as I thought that they were all with chickpea. But that’s just more of my falafel naivety. In fact, T of B just published an exciting version with green beans. Her other version has a mix of fava and chickpea.

Here is another recipe, and another, and one more.

chickpea falafel

2 cups chickpeas (dried that I rehydrated)
1 cup roasted chickpea flour
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp tahini
½ tsp baking soda
1½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
½ tsp cayenne
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp coriander (I didn’t have this so left it out)
1 tsp cumin
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup fresh dill and/or cilantro

oil for frying
sesame seeds

Place everything except frying oil and sesame seeds in food processor. Pulse until you get a paste. Pour falafel mix into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to a day.

When you’re ready to make the falafel, heat oil in a deep pan. Shape falafel into walnut-sized balls. If the dough is too soft, add more chickpea flour (I had to). Roll balls in sesame seeds. Press them into rounds. Gently place in frying oil and cook about three minutes per side. Remove form oil and let drain in a dish covered with paper towels.

Serve with hummus, baba ghanoush, yoghurt sauce or however you want. I made a lot so froze and re-heated them in the over later. They were perfect.