Enjoy this satisfying lemon and herb falafel recipe, easy to make and ideal for salad bowls, wraps, pittas and dunking into dips.
Falafels are another recipe that we thought would be tricky to master but they are surprisingly easy, so much so that these lemon and herb falafels are made repeatedly and often on a whim.
We often find shop bought falafels (even the better ones) rubbery or dry leaving us disappointed. This recipe is full of flavour and we eat them as part of large bowls of salad, stuffed into pitta bread, rolled into wraps or simply dunked into dips. They are ideal for lunchboxes and picnics or when you arrive home from work and don’t want anything too heavy but need something easy and satisfying.
We’ve made them so often the recipe is engrained in our minds, which is handy as we often vary the ingredients – the herbs and spices – depending on what we have in.
To be really helpful we have a speedy way of making the lemon and herb falafels and a second way that involves pre softening the onions and garlic.
The speedy falafel – leave out the onion and add all the ingredients to the food processer and pulse and blitz into a rough paste.
The slower falafel – in a small frying pan add a splash of oil and cook the onion and garlic until soft. Then add all the ingredients to the food processer and pulse and blitz into a rough paste.
Either method creates a tasty lemon and herb falafel.
We keep the drained aquafaba (chickpea liquid) from the tin in the fridge to make our dark chocolate brownies with.
20g of either fresh coriander or parsley or a combination of both, roughly chopped
Pinch of salt
Ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil for frying
Instructions
The speedy lemon and herb falafel method.
Put the chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, gram flour, ground coriander, ground cumin, salt and pepper into the food processor. Blitz to form a rough firm paste, then add the fresh herbs and pulse until combined. You can make the falafel paste completely smooth, but we like some texture.
Then using a dessertspoon, scoop up a good spoonful of the falafel mixture and shape –either into a lozenge shape or a ball – it’s entirely up to you. Set to one side.
In a heavy-based frying pan, pour in 0.5cm depth of olive oil over the base and heat to medium-high heat. To tell if the oil is ready – add a small piece of the falafel mix and if the oil sizzles and starts to turn the falafel mix golden – it’s ready to use.
Carefully add the falafels into the oil and cook, turning occasionally until all sides are lightly crisp and golden. Depending on the size of your frying pan you may need to cook in small batches. This will take 4 to 5 minutes. Once cooked remove the falafel and place on a piece of kitchen towel.
Serve as soon as possible if eating hot.
Notes
Store in the fridge for up to 2 days – beyond that the falafels become slightly dry. They also freeze well.
Keywords: falafel
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