Baked Falafel
Who doesn’t love Falafel? Apart from being delicious they are also a good source of fiber and protein and get you full quite fast so you usually don’t overeat. Falafel is made mainly of chickpeas which are full of vitamins, minerals and are known to aid in digestion and weight control. The only problem is that falafel is usually fried which adds calories and fat to this actually very healthy meal.
Although I do love my falafel fried I wanted to make it 100% healthy during this Healthy Vegan January month and decided to bake them for the first time. The results where really astonishing and I almost didn’t miss the frying at all - I added enough oil to the falafel before baking them to create a nice little crispy layer on the outside which gave me this feeling of “false frying”. You can eat falafel with Hummus, Baba Ganoush, vegetables, Tahini Sauce or you can make yourself a home made Falafel Wrap - they are really delicious with anything.
I hope you enjoy this healthy and easy falafel version.
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 25 Minutes
Ingredients for 2 people:
Chickpeas (uncooked) - 85 g - you can either use canned chickpeas if you don’t have time or take dry chickpeas, soak them for 24 hours, rinse them and dry them before using them.
Shallot - 25 g
Garlic - 1 clove
Lemon - Juice from half
Coriander (fresh) - 20 g - if you don’t like coriander you can leave it out
Parsley (fresh) - 20 g
Cumin (ground) - 1/2 teaspoon
Baking Powder - 10 g
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil - 1/2 Tbs
Preparation:
Let’s start making our falafels by pre-heating the oven to 200°C.
Take your chickpeas (if you bought the canned ones make sure you rinse them properly and dry them - same goes for the chickpeas if you let them soak - they need to be nice and dry before we start using them). Put them in a bowl along with your shallot, garlic, lemon juice, cumin, coriander, baking powder, parsley, olive oil salt and pepper. If you want to go really crazy you can add just a little bit of cinnamon.
Mix everything with a hand blender until the ingredients are broken down but not mushy. Work the mixture with your hands a bit, making sure that all the ingredients are broken down but not too mushy.
Now start making balls with your falafel mixture, you can either use your hands or two spoons (do not press them too tightly). If you feel like the falafels are falling apart you might have to mix a little more.
Place the falafels on a baking tray with parchment paper and drizzle olive oil on them (don’t be stingy with the olive oil as this is what will make them crispy). Bake for 13 minutes at 200°C then take them out and flip them around and bak for another 13 minutes. If you feel like they are burning or getting to brown you can flip them before the 13 minutes (this really depends on the oven).
Take your falafels out and serve them :)
You can keep falafels for 2/3 days in the fridge - I usually re-heat them in a pan in order to make them a bit crispy again as they might loose some consistency in the fridge.