Boasting a crisp, golden-brown exterior and a soft, tender center packed with chickpeas and herbs, our homemade falafel recipe hits all those classic flavors.
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00:00 Hey everyone, it's Tia in the Delish Studio kitchen.
00:03 Falafel is the king of street food,
00:05 but that doesn't mean that you have to go
00:07 halfway across the world to enjoy it.
00:10 You can make it right here in your own kitchen,
00:13 and I'm gonna show you how to do that now.
00:15 Falafel is one of those classic fried street foods.
00:19 They're basically golden fritters, savory fritters,
00:23 made of ground up chickpeas with herbs and spices,
00:27 with a tahini, in a pita, they are so delicious.
00:32 You want them to be crispy on the outside,
00:34 and then soft and fluffy inside.
00:37 The star of the show here is, surprise, surprise,
00:40 chickpeas.
00:41 Now here's the deal.
00:42 You can make a really great oven-baked falafel
00:45 using chickpeas out of the can,
00:47 but for a traditional deep fried falafel,
00:50 you're gonna wanna use dried.
00:53 Dried chickpeas are drier than chickpeas out of the can,
00:57 so they don't disintegrate in the oil while you fry.
01:00 To prep these dried chickpeas,
01:02 we're gonna soak them in water overnight.
01:05 And now as you can see,
01:06 through the magic of honestly thinking ahead,
01:09 I have a bowl of pre-soaked chickpeas.
01:13 So, as you can see, the soaked chickpeas
01:17 are much larger than the ones that are dried.
01:21 They've partially hydrated, they have absorbed the water.
01:24 They're not cooked, but they are hydrated,
01:28 so they are going to blend up much more easily
01:30 in the food processor.
01:32 After in the chickpeas,
01:33 we're just gonna pat them dry with a paper towel
01:36 just to make sure there's not a lot of excess moisture.
01:39 Now we're going to coarsely chop our onion,
01:41 garlic, parsley, and cilantro.
01:44 Now we're ready to make our falafel mixture.
01:47 This is the super simplest thing to do.
01:50 Basically, we're just gonna get our chickpeas
01:53 into the food processor,
01:55 pulse until they're about halfway broken down,
01:58 and then we're gonna add the rest of our ingredients.
02:00 Baking powder might feel like
02:03 sort of a weird ingredient to add here,
02:05 but essentially, it just lightens the falafel
02:08 and makes it fluffy, and pulse until they're combined.
02:12 You can even scoop the mixture
02:13 straight out of the food processor bowl.
02:16 As soon as the mixture is finely ground, but not mushy,
02:20 you are going to give it a little stir
02:23 with a rubber spatula,
02:24 make sure everything has been evenly broken down,
02:27 and then you're gonna take your flour
02:29 and just sprinkle it over the top and pulse again.
02:33 So we've got our mixture pulsed until it's combined.
02:36 We've added our flour.
02:37 You will know that your falafel mixture
02:39 is at the right texture when it is sort of spongy
02:43 when you press it together with your fingers,
02:46 and it holds together, but it's not too wet.
02:49 You want some texture there still.
02:51 The easiest way to scoop these falafels
02:53 is with a cookie scoop.
02:55 If you don't have one, you can also use two spoons.
02:58 I find that the cookie scoop gives me a consistent amount,
03:01 and it's also cleaner, so that's what I prefer.
03:04 Once you have the falafel mixture in your hand,
03:07 you're just going to sort of roll it
03:10 and toss it simultaneously between your palms
03:14 until it forms into a ball.
03:16 You're sort of compacting the mixture,
03:17 but you're not smashing it.
03:19 Just sort of lightly rolling and pressing it together
03:23 until it looks like that.
03:25 Lots of people are intimidated by frying at home.
03:28 The main thing to keep in mind
03:29 is that you want to have your setup set
03:32 before anything hits the deep fryer.
03:34 So for me, I always like to have my pot with oil
03:39 with the thermometer stuck in it
03:41 so I can always monitor exactly what temperature it's at.
03:45 This is key.
03:46 I also then like to have a wire rack set inside a sheet pan
03:51 and one of these guys.
03:53 This is called a spider, and I love it.
03:55 It's great for lowering food,
03:58 picking food out of the oil, all that.
04:01 You could also use a slotted spoon, as long as it's heatproof.
04:04 We're gonna use our spider
04:05 to gently lower the falafel into the oil.
04:08 We're gonna work in batches of about six to seven at a time,
04:12 and we'll fry them until golden brown and crispy,
04:15 about two to three minutes.
04:17 So while we wait for our falafel to fry,
04:19 we're gonna wanna check for a couple different things.
04:22 First, we're going to want to be constantly
04:25 checking our temperature
04:26 to make sure we're maintaining that 350.
04:29 If you need to lower the heat or raise the heat
04:32 to adjust for the coldness of the falafel balls
04:34 as they go in, that's totally fine.
04:37 You're also gonna wanna make sure
04:39 that they're floating freely
04:40 and not wanting to stick to each other.
04:43 This shouldn't be a problem
04:44 if you're using a pot this size
04:46 and you're only frying six or seven at a time.
04:48 The other reason why you only wanna fry
04:50 six or seven at a time
04:51 is 'cause if you put too many falafel balls in,
04:54 the temperature of the oil will drop drastically,
04:58 and you'll end up with balls that are kind of like greasy.
05:02 Look at these gorgeously golden brown falafel.
05:05 They're super crisp on the outside,
05:07 and they're gonna be so soft and fluffy in the middle,
05:11 thanks to that baking powder.
05:13 You're gonna get the freshness of the herbs
05:15 and that nice little hit of garlic behind it.
05:18 These falafel are a perfect party app,
05:21 but they're also great to bring as a packed lunch to work.
05:25 You can put them on top of a salad.
05:26 You can use them in a sandwich,
05:29 or you can just eat them as a snack on the go.
05:32 For this and other street food favorites,
05:34 stick around on delish.com.
05:36 (upbeat music)
05:38 (upbeat music)