Falafel is the ultimate comfort food. A good falafel will be crunchy from the outside, soft and airy from the inside and will pair perfectly in a pita pocket bread with hummus, tahini, chopped salad and some parsley. That is, if you can hold yourself from snacking on all of it when it comes right out of the hot oil and is so delicious.
This might be my husband’s favorite food. In Israel falafel has been adopted from Arab cuisine and the version made with chickpeas is wildly popular. It really is the most basic street food. A pita full of deliciousness that will leave you stuffed will probably cost about 2-3€. Little huts are spread around in every town, aside roads and sneaking out of the wall in busy streets and markets, selling these fresh and fried on the spot. One of the important factors of a delicious falafel is to eat the falafel balls fresh, still warm and crunchy. So normally you will wait a few minutes in line while the balls are being deep fried. But while you wait, a good falafel stand will always give you a falafel ball to snack on and open your taste buds, longing for that pita to be placed in your hands.
Falafel Family
To be honest, falafel was never my favorite food. Until one day my brilliant friends took me to eat falafel in Israel Haifa, which is a big city up north. There in the Wadi Nisnas area, you can find ‘HaZkenim Falafel’ (The old people falafel). Words cannot describe… if you are ever there, please please try their falafel, it will make a believer out of you too. Here’s a picture of our last visit, my daughter Gaia and dog Pi are strong supporter of the falafel movement!
And until we are all able to travel to Haifa, Israel, we are in luck because one of the most incredible up and coming new chefs in Israel, Naifa Mulla, recently shared her recipe for making Falafel on her instagram. I was lucky enough to eat Naifa’s food from the heart during my last visit to Tel Aviv and briefly meet her at the end of the meal, which was an amazing experience. So in case you still need to brush up on your Hebrew, here is a recipe inspired by Naifa’s recipe with a few small adaptions that you can make according to your own taste.
How to make Falafel
Start by selecting your chickpeas, go for the smallest kind you can find. Then soak them in a lot of fresh cold water over night in a bowl on your kitchen counter. Change the water at least once during this time. Make sure to top it off with a lot of water as these little guys will soak up quite a bit of it.
If for some reason your culinary plans changed overnight, you can place the chickpeas with fresh water, covered in a container in your refrigerator to use the following day. When you’re ready, drain them well.
Add to the food processor with an onion (red or white), garlic cloves, one peeled potato, parsley and coriander (yes, you can skip it).
Pulse and stop every few times to scrape the sides down. We are looking to get pretty much the same texture all throughout the bowl, but not completely smooth. Kind of a rough, coarse meal. Between grainy and a paste. Drizzle in some olive oil while pulsing.
When everything well pulsed and combined, place in a clean bowl and add salt, pepper, cumin, baking powder, nutmeg. You can also add some Aleppo pepper (or chili, etc.) in there if you’d like to spice it up.
Mix everything thoroughly, cover, and let it rest for about 30 minutes
Meanwhile get your favorites ready! I chopped up a simple tomato, cucumber and red onion with olive oil and lots of lemon juice. Some Tahini, Hummus of course, chopped preserved lemon, chopped parsley, and fresh pita bread if you like.
When everything is ready, heat up your pot with enough oil to deep fry. We are looking for medium heat here, so about 170 C degrees. If it’ll be too hot, your falafel will burn from the outside until it’s ready from the inside. If it’s too cold, you’ll lose crunch and the falafel might soak up more oil than you’d like. Use a falafel spoon (or two spoons) to create the balls. Not too dense, we want our falafels fluffy and crunchy.
Gently let them slide into the hot oil, not too many so we won’t throw down the heat of the oil. I do about 10 at a time.
After 30 seconds, use a big slotted spoon to move them around in the oil. Let them turn beautiful golden brown, about 5 minutues.
Transfer to a baking tray lined with kitchen paper or to a colander, to drain the oil out. Eat warm and enjoy!
If you made this crunchy falafel, please consider takeing a picture and tagging me on Instagram @kerenruben or Facebook Keren’s Kitchen I’d love to see and hear how you liked it!
Falafel (Vegan and gluten free)
Ingredients
- 400grams (14oz) dried chickpeas
- 1 White or red onion, peeled and cut in big chunks
- 1 Potato, peeled and cut in big chunks
- 1 Handful Parsley or more (optional)
- 1 Handfull of Coriander, or more (optional)
- 6 gloves of garlic
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 Tsp ground black pepper
- 1.5 Tsp table salt
- ½ Tsp ground cumin
- ½ Tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper or chili spice (totally optional)
- vegetable oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Soak the chickpeas in lots of water overnight, replace water once during this time. When ready, drain the water out completely.
- Add the chickpeas, onion, potato, garlic, parsley and coriander to your food processor. Pulse a few times, then stop and scrape everything from the sides. Continue pulsing and scraping, stirring – Make sure everything is equally grinded together to one mass. While pulsing, add olive oil. It’s ready when you get a rough, coarse meal. Between grainy and a paste.
- Move the chickpeas mix to a clean bowl and add baking powder, black pepper, salt, cumin, nutmeg and aleppo pepper/chili spice if using. Mix well.
- Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Fill a pot with enough oil to deep fry, about 6cm (2.5 inch) high. Heat up the oil to a medium a heat, about 170C (350F)
- Use a falafel spoon (or two spoons) to create balls. Not too dense, just enough to get kind of a ball shape, this way the falafels stay fluffy and crunchy.
- Gently let slide each into the hot oil, no more than 10 at a time.
- After 30 seconds, use a big slotted spoon to move them around in the oil. Let them turn beautiful golden brown and crunchy, about 5-6 minutues.
- Transfer to a baking tray lined with kitchen paper or to a colander, to drain the oil out. Eat warm and enjoy!
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