Healthy Baked Falafels Recipe

I love this falafel recipe. We’ve been making them for over ten years. Our kids won’t eat them, but they are great for a date night. We also make them sometimes and nuke some chicken nuggets for the kids.

If you make these, you absolutely must make the tzatziki sauce that goes with them. Having them without is like eating plain dry spaghetti noodles. Maybe you like dry spaghetti noodles, but I promise that they’re better with sauce. These are just like that.

© 2016, Tara Ziegmont. All rights reserved.

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Healthy Falafels Recipe

Course

Gluten-free, Main Course, Main Dish

Cuisine

Mediterranean

Servings

Ingredients

• 16 oz chick peas In the original recipe, I said that you would definitely want to use dried chick peas because they taste oh so much better. That requires soaking the dried peas overnight and then boiling them for an hour before beginning the falafels. Who has time for that? Not me, not at this stage of my life. So we use canned. You won't die, I promise.
• 2 cups water If you cooked your chick peas from dried, you should use the cooking liquid. Otherwise, drinking water will be fine.
• 2 onions chopped
• 2 cloves garlic pressed or minced
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin
• 1 cup plain breadcrumbs

Course Gluten-free, Main Course, Main Dish Cuisine Mediterranean Servings Ingredients 16 oz chick peas In the original recipe, I said that you would definitely want to use dried chick peas because they taste oh so much better. That requires soaking the dried peas overnight and then boiling them for an hour before beginning the falafels. Who has time for that? Not me, not at this stage of my life. So we use canned. You won't die, I promise. 2 cups water If you cooked your chick peas from dried, you should use the cooking liquid. Otherwise, drinking water will be fine. 2 onions chopped 2 cloves garlic pressed or minced 1 tablespoon parsley 2 eggs 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 2 teaspoons ground cumin 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 3 tablespoons lemon juice 2 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin 1 cup plain breadcrumbs

Instructions

1. Sauté the onions and garlic until they are crisp tender.
2. Combine everything except the water and breadcrumbs in your blender, reserving about half of the onion mixture and a few handfuls of chick peas in a small bowl.
3. Pulse the ingredients in the blender until the mixture is smooth. You may need to add water to thin the mixture enough that your blender can process it. Add a little water at a time. If you add too much water, you'll ruin your chick pea mixture.
4. Once the mixture is smooth and well blended, remove most of it from the blender. Add in the reserved onions, garlic, and chick peas and pulse until just barely chopped. Add to the smooth mixture. This will give the batter a nice texture.
5. Add breadcrumbs to the batter 1/4 cup at a time, until the batter is thick enough to hold its shape when formed into a ball.
6. Using a cookie scoop, form golfball-sized mounds of dough in a shallow baking dish. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until deep golden brown.

Recipe Notes

Serve with tzatziki sauce.

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