Falafel - The deep fried Lebanese snack, falafel, explained in details with step by step photos and videos.

Falafel is a popular vegetarian deep fried snack of Middle Eastern region. It was supposed to be originated in Egypt, where it was made with fava beans. Arab adopted this crispy and tasty snack from the Egyptians and made it more nutritive with chickpeas as chickpeas are a very high in fibre, protein and minerals. Due to the high fibre content it helps to reduce cholesterol, especially when they are baked or fried in low-fat oils.

Addition of herbs like parsley and coriander is very common and make flavourful with some spices like coriander powder, cumin powder, pepper powder, etc. Normally, I make this crispy nugget with coriander leaves as we get parsley rarely here . It is too tasty and one of the most favourite snack of my kids.

The word falafel originated from the Arabic word filfil which means ground whole pepper. This tasty snack became one of the most famous street food all over the world and is also served during iftar as a meat substitution for vegetarians. Serving options are numerous, we love to have it as an evening snack, but generally they are sand witched with pita bread and vegetables along with hummus, tahini or thuom.

Traditionally, this dish is made with socked chickpeas, but can also be made with canned ones. But it gives an entirely different taste. The falafel with cooked chickpeas requires more flour as binding agent because it falls apart easily when fried. Rice flour, gram flour, cornflour and oats flour can be used as a binding agent in order to reduce the moisture content.

Lebanese falafel recipe | How to make home made falafel, the deep fried chickpea patties

Deep fried patties with chickpeas and herbs

Preparation time: 10 minutes | Cooking time: 7 minutes| Total time: 17 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
1 small onion
4 to 5 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp pepper powder
Juice from half lemon
1/2 cup coriander leaves or 1/2 cup parsley leaves
Salt to taste
oil for frying

How To Make Falafel Nuggets

Preparation of Falafel Nugget With Step By Step Photos

Here I am using soaked chickpeas (vella kadala or chana). Soaked them overnight so that it absorbs enough water and turn soft. Drain excess water and keep aside. Note: You can use canned chickpeas also, but it gives entirely a different taste.
To the grinding jar of your mixer grinder or in a food processor, put onion, garlic and coriander leaves ( or parsley leaves or equal amount of coriander leaves + parsley leaves ). Do add a few garlic cloves as this not only alters the taste but also aid digestion.
Grind till it attains a coarse consistency.
Then put drained chickpeas and grind again. If you are using the mixer jar, you might need to stir it in between to ensure even grinding. You can grind every at a stretch. I am doing this in two steps only because to ensure even grinding in my small grinder jar.
Grind them into a coarse mixture without adding water. Do not grind till smooth. Falafel tastes good when made with a coarse mixture. Stop the grinder and stir two to three times in between and avoid water while grinding.
The mixture should have a coarse consistency. The falafel won't be tasty when grind smooth. It should be a little bit coarse.
Transfer this into a bowl and put cumin powder, chilli powder, pepper powder, coriander powder and salt.Then put one or two tablespoons of gram flour (Kadala mavu / besan)Gram flour is used as a binding agent i.e, to reduce the moisture content inside the mixture. You can use any flour like, oats flour, all purpose flour, rice flour, etc. This is just to reduce the moisture content and get a nice binding while frying.
Squeeze half lemon. The amount of lemon juice depends on the sourness you want. Do adjust its amount.
Mix well with a spoon so that all the spices distribute everywhere.
Take a small portion and make small balls out of it.
Slightly flatten between your palm . Look like parippu vada (dal vada), right
Then fry in hot oil kept on medium flame. The flame should kept in medium, as we are using raw chickpeas for this dish. If you keep the flame on high, the outer layer will brown quickly, leaving the inner portion uncooked.
Once the spluttering reduced and the falafels get a nice brown colour, you can take them out from the oil. The falafels will have a crispy outer layer and soft inner side.
Serve with hummus or tahini sauce. Actually, I don't need any accompaniment for this dish. Enjoy.