Falafel from dried chickpeas: crisp outside, green inside
Good chickpea falafel is made from chickpeas that have been soaked but never cooked. That is the one thing you cannot change here: cooked chickpeas disintegrate in the oil and instead of balls you get scattered crumbs. Dried ones, swollen overnight and ground with onion, garlic and a big bunch of parsley, make a mixture that binds itself, and that fries crisp outside while staying moist and green within. Twenty pieces, for pita with tahini sauce.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Chickpeas soaking 720 min
- Grinding 15 min
- Mixture resting 30 min
- Frying 25 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneSoak the chickpeas overnight
Pick over the chickpeas and cover with cold water reaching 5 cm above the beans: they swell a lot. Leave 12–24 hours at room temperature (in the fridge in summer). They are ready when roughly doubled and pale, and a bean split with a thumbnail is chalky all the way through with no hard core.
Ingredients: 250 g dried chickpeas · 1 pcs onion · 3 cloves garlic · 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley · 2 tsp ground cumin · ½ tsp chilli flakes · 1½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 2 tbsp plain flour
TipThis is the one step that cannot be rushed or skipped. Canned and cooked chickpeas have gelatinised starch that collapses the moment it hits hot oil. Raw soaked ones bind the mixture themselves, with no egg and no breadcrumbs.
Five centimetres of water above the beans, at least 12 hoursDrain and dry
Drain the chickpeas and spread them on a tea towel; pat them thoroughly dry. A wet mixture spits in the oil and falls apart while frying.
Drained and patted dry on a towelGrind to coarse rubble
Put the chickpeas, quartered onion, garlic and parsley leaves in a food processor. Blitz in 20–30 pulses, scraping the sides, until it looks like damp green couscous. Do not blend smooth: a hummus-like paste makes dense, heavy, rubbery balls.
TipThe grind size decides the texture. Too coarse and the balls crumble, too fine and they turn gluey and heavy. The target is couscous: individual pieces are visible, but a handful squeezed in the palm holds together.
Pulsed to the texture of couscousSeason and chill 30 minutes
Tip into a bowl and mix with the cumin, chilli, salt, pepper and flour. Add the soda last and mix briefly. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.
TipThe flour and half an hour in the cold let the moisture distribute evenly, so the balls hold. In the hot oil the soda releases gas that loosens the inside and makes it fluffy. Add it last and mix thoroughly but briefly: a lump of soda in one ball gives a soapy taste.
Squeezed in the hand, it keeps its shapeShape 20 balls
With damp hands roll walnut-sized balls of 35 g each, squeezing firmly, and line them up on a tray. Leave the surface slightly craggy: that is what browns.
Twenty balls of 35 gramsFry at 170–175 °C
In a small, tall pot (about 18 cm across) heat the oil to 170–175 °C; it should be about 4 cm deep. Fry one test ball first. If it falls apart, work another spoon of flour into the mixture and try again. Fry 5–6 at a time for 3–4 minutes, turning, until deep brown. Lift out with a slotted spoon onto paper towel. The four batches take about 20 minutes in all.
Ingredients: 1000 ml rapeseed oil
TipUse a thermometer or the wooden spoon test: dipped in the oil it should be wreathed in fine, steady bubbles. Below 165 °C the falafel soaks up fat; above 185 °C the outside burns before the middle stops being raw. Too big a batch drops the oil temperature sharply.
Six at a time, four minutes, deep brownTahini sauce and serving
Whisk the tahini with the lemon juice and crushed garlic: it thickens and turns pale. Loosen with ice-cold water, a spoon at a time, until it has the consistency of pouring cream, and salt it. Warm the pitas, split them, fill with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and onion, add 3 falafel each and spoon over the sauce. Eat at once, while they are crisp.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp tahini (sesame paste) · 1 pcs lemon, juice · 1 clove garlic · 5 tbsp ice-cold water · 4 pcs pita bread · 2 pcs tomatoes · 1 pcs cucumber · ½ pcs lettuce · ½ pcs red onion
Pita, salad, three balls, plenty of sauce
Before you start
From the oven
Flatten the balls into patties, brush with olive oil on both sides and bake 25 minutes at 200 °C, turning halfway. Not as crisp as fried, but lighter, and the whole kitchen doesn't smell of oil.
Green falafel
Double the parsley and add a bunch of coriander. The inside comes out vivid green and tastes far more herbal: the way many Middle Eastern stalls sell it.
For the freezer
Freeze the raw shaped balls on a tray, then bag them. Fry from frozen, a minute longer, in oil 5 degrees cooler.
