Would you like to try a different vegetarian dish for your next Super Bowl party, get together, potluck dinner or meatless Monday? Give our Baked Green Falafel a try. You’ll love it. This green Baked Green Falafel recipe is guilt free, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, kosher, super flavorful and easy to make. It is always fun to make recipes using a muffin tin.
Happy Meatless Monday everybody!
I can’t believe it’s Monday again. The school year is coming to an end and the kids are super excited, getting ready for summer vacation. And quite frankly, so am I!
I’ve probably said this before, but this is by far my favorite time of the year. Not only because I absolutely despise the cold weather, but also because it brings back so many great memories.
As a kid, we used to spend our summers at the beach. Two and a half months of nothing but beautiful weather, relaxing by the pool and fun times with family and friends. Ah… Just the thought of it bring a smile to my face.
Some of my best memories though come from the times I spent in Israel as a teenager. I was lucky enough to go several times with family and friends, and let me tell you something, I never got tired of it. Such a small country, but so many things to do and so many places to visit!
And, of course… the food.
I can’t even begin to describe how amazing the food is over there. Fruits and veggies incredibly sweet and juicy. Anything dairy, absolutely unbelievable. And falafel… everywhere!!
I’ve always loved falafel. Yet I’ve never made it myself. I guess it’s one of those things you’re so used to eating out, you don’t even think about making at home, from scratch. I’ve been wanting to try a lighter recipe, baked instead of frying it, so I did some “research”, experimented a little bit and this is the version I came up with. Super simple and easy to make Baked Green Falafel recipe!
Hope you enjoy it,
Baked Falafel
Prep Time: 15 mins- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 24 falafel balls
Category: Appetizer, Entree
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
This falafel is baked not fried and it still is full of flavor!
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
- 1 cup chopped parsley
- 1 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp hot paprika
- 1/4 tsp all spice
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/16 tsp cardamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- Cooking spray
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven at 400F
- Generously spray a mini muffin tin with cooking spray
- Combine all ingredients, except olive oil in the food processor
- Pulse a few times until all the ingredients are well combined, but not completely smooth
- Place mixture in a bowl, add olive oil and mix well
- Using your hands, or a small ice cream scoop form small balls and place them in the mini muffin tin
- Bake at 400F for 15 minutes
- Serve with pita bread, pickles, tahini sauce and cucumber tomato salad
Notes
IN ORDER TO MAKE THIS RECIPE YOU WILL NEED TO SOAK THE CHICKPEAS OVERNIGHT IN TWICE THEIR VOLUME OF WATER.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO FREEZE THE FALAFEL FREEZE ALREADY BAKED.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 falafel balls
- Calories: 182
- Sugar: 4
- Sodium: 420
- Fat: 7
- Unsaturated Fat: 4
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 24
- Fiber: 5.5
- Protein: 8.2
- Cholesterol: 0
Tahini Sauce
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 5 mins
- Category: Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ cup tahini paste
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp salt
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together tahini, salt and lemon juice until it thickens
- Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time and mix until well incorporated. For thinner sauce, add more water one tablespoon at a time. Refrigerate until ready to use (note: sauce will thicken slightly when refrigerated)
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 tablespoons
- Calories: 91
- Sugar: 0
- Sodium: 160
- Fat: 8
- Unsaturated Fat: 3
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 4
- Fiber: 1.4
- Protein: 2.6
- Cholesterol: 0
Tomato Cucumber Salad
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 10 mins
Ingredients
- 1 large cucumber (we prefer seedless), diced
- 1 pint of grape tomatoes (we like to mix red and yellow), sliced in half
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 3 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients in a medium size bowl. Toss and let it sit for a few minutes
- Enjoy! From May I have that recipe
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/6 of the salad
- Calories: 76
- Sugar: 0.9
- Sodium: 0.9
- Fat: 7
- Unsaturated Fat: 5
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 3.5
- Fiber: 0.8
- Protein: 0.9
- Cholesterol: 0
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- Combine all the ingredients except the olive oil in the food processor
Pulse a few times until all the ingredients are well combined, but not completely smooth
Place mixture in a bowl, add olive oil and mix well- Using your hands, form small balls of Green Falafel and place them in the muffin tin the mixture will a little loose. From loose balls and carefully place them on a mini muffin tin
I can’t wait to try this!
Hope you enjoy it!! Let us know what you think!!
i need to make these, they look delicious! and i love that you baked them in muffin tins! so creative 😉
Thank you!! We love using muffin tins, they make the process so much easier!! Hope you enjoy them!!! 🙂
These are soo easy to make, delicous and healthy!! how much better could you get??
I’m making these tomorrow and I’ve never used dried chick peas so I have a novice question before I end up with 24 bad balls. Your recipe says raw chick peas, so I take it that means just soak, but don’t boil for the hour (like the package and goggle say). Is that right?
Soak the Chickpeas overnight, rinse them well and do not cook them just put them in the food processor with the other ingredients to make the falafel balls. Let us know how they come out!
These are fantastic and crazy easy. And they are just as good 2 days later out of the fridge. Thank you for such a simple recipe with great flavours. This will be a recipe I add to my collection.
Great. Who would have thought falafel was so easy to make! So glad you liked it. We love to hear feedback so please keep sharing!
Ooh, BAKED falafel — genius. I also love the addition of lemon zest. You don’t, by any chance, have an idea what might be in that addictive green chili sauce, do you?
Hmm… Not quite sure. We’ll do some research and let you know 🙂
So excited to try this! I loooove falafel and like you, never thought to try to make it at home. I’ve been dying for fresh and light recipes, and it’s on my grocery list. I’m going to only cook the balls that I’m going to eat for lunch and freeze the rest and bake them off as needed. Hopefully that will work out well! 🙂
That’s a great idea. You might be able to bake them all and freeze them already cooked, then all you have to do is defrost them and heat them up.
Thanks for trying our recipe!
I absolutely love falafel! Your photos are gorgeous.
Thank you very much Kristy. Have a great weekend !
Wow, I’m so excited about these! I’ve never seen a recipe where you don’t have to cook the chick peas in advance! Thank you for this!
Raw chickpeas give the falafel its unique taste and texture. Hope you enjoy it!! 🙂
Congrats! This recipe has been nominated to win my Inspired Recipe of the Year Award. The shortlist will be announced on 12/30/2013.
Thank you. We have been wanting a Le Creuset for a long time, may be we will win!
You are a finalist for my most inspired recipe of 2013. The winner recives a 5.5qt Le Creuset dutch oven and voting is open until 1/8/2014 and you can vote here: http://www.thisamericanbite.com/2013-best-recipes/
Get your fans voting with this badge for your website http://bit.ly/198TklA or share this post http://on.fb.me/1dkqUti
This falafel recipe sounds delicious. Could I use garbanzo flour in place of the raw chickpeas?? I was just given a bag of Bob’s Red Mill chickpea flour and can’t wait to try it. Thanks.
★★★★★
We don’t think the recipe will work with Garbanzo flour, but we have a couple of recipes with garbanzo flour that you can try:
https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/2013/10/23/savory-chickpea-flour-scallion-pancakes-with-greek-yogurt-caper-sauce/
https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/2014/09/05/gluten-free-falafel-crackers/
can you use canned chick peas? would this work as good as the raw?
We don’t think it will be the same if you use canned chickpeas. They may get too mushy, but if you are going to try, please let us know the results, we are curious. Enjoy!
My wife and I love this recipe – texturally the falafel is inferior vs frying but certainly much healthier – thank you for sharing!
★★★★★
Thank you Pete, we agree with you, but we feel that once you add tahini and the salad you can enjoy it even without frying it.
Just made this to add to our lunch boxes for next week. My husband and I loved them so much that we might need to make another batch for our lunches!
★★★★★
This falafel is great for lunch!
first time ever making felafel, and oh my goodness, this is AMAZING. Time-consuming, and you won’t think the balls of felafel will stick together, but so, so worth it. I will triple the recipe next time to have some in the freezer!
★★★★★
Thank you Andrea! So happy you liked the recipe.
your sauce sounds great but what is the sauce with cucumber i like that one
Thank you for your comment. There are 3 recipes in a row for the Baked falafel. The last one is the tomato cucumber sald