Baked Falafel

I have posted this baked Falafel recipe in the past, but made a few tweaks to the ingredients and cooking method so I am posting it again. Here is the slightly healthier but not by that much original.

This made twelve falafel.

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight (or covered with boiling salted water and allowed to sit for a couple of hours until softened)

1/4 cup onion, roughly chopped

Large handful parsley, stems and all, roughly chopped

Large handful cilantro, stems and all, roughly chopped

1 garlic clove

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp ground coriander

1 Tbsp all purpose flour

2 Tbsps olive oil

Salt to taste

Drain the chickpeas.

Place them and all ingredients except for the flour in a food processor or Vitamix and grind into rubble. The mixture should resemble bread crumbs or rough sand.

Tip the mixture into a bowl and stir in the flour. If your mixture feels wet and doesn't stick together when you try to form some of it into a ball, add a teaspoon or so more flour. Be stingy with this as you don't want your falafel to be stodgy.

Place in the fridge for an hour or so to firm up before shaping into twelve equal sized balls. I used a melon scooper to get a uniform shape and size but you can definitely free form these as well. Press down on each ball to flatten it slightly.

Measure the oil into an oven safe pan. I used a heavy cast iron skillet. Place the pan in the oven and preheat to 425 so that the oil gets very hot by the time the oven is preheated.

Bake for ten minutes.

Remove from the oven and, using tongs, turn each falafel over.

Place back in the oven and bake for an additional ten minutes.

Remove from the oven and let sit for five minutes before using. I served mine with a delicious beet "hummus", both as an appetizer and as part of a sandwich filling as illustrated below.