Your ticket to the best on-the-go lunch EVER.
Before last summer, my food-centric, NYC-cultured brain would have assumed that everyone knew what falafel was. And then--
“I don’t know what falafel is,” said my mother.
I never thought an off-hand request for lunch preference would be so enlightening.
For those of you may not be familiar, falafel are small patties made of ground chickpeas, garlic, and herbs mashed together, rolled into tiny balls and fried until they are golden brown. These fried falafel balls are typically piled into a crisp warm pita bread, cushioned with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and other assorted vegetables, and drizzled with velvety tahini sauce or a cooling tzatziki.
For anyone who happens to live in New York City, falafel is a common sight: it’s sold on the streets in halal carts and in fast-casual restaurants. Supermarkets even sell it at salad bars and in packages in their cold cases along with the grab-and-go sandwiches and salads. For most people, falafel is synonymous with cheap fast food that you buy out. But it’s so much more.
True: falafel is cheap. A can of chickpeas, the primary ingredient, costs less than a dollar. True: falafel is fast. It only takes a few minutes to cook a few patties on the stovetop. True: falafel is fantastic to eat on the go. But that doesn’t mean that you have to buy it on the go.
Falafel is one of the quickest, easiest meals to whip up for yourself. Just dump chickpeas, herbs, and spices into the food processor with a little flour, and in a few short minutes, you can have a batch of batter that will be good for multiple meals. Spend a few more minutes whizzing up some quick tahini sauce, and you have a beautiful dressing made. The other components—pita, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, whatever other veg you like—are easily purchased and can be prepped and ready to go in less than five minutes. Your meal is ready in no time.
And because these recipes make more batter and more sauce than you would probably eat in a single setting, the leftover batter becomes your ticket to one of the best ready-to-go homemade meal kits in existence. The next day, you come from work, pull out a pan and a cutting board and you have a full meal in less than ten minutes. And in this crazy 21st century life that we live in, who doesn’t want that?
I was not actually the first person to experiment with falafel. I remember coming home from work one day, and seeing this plastic bowl of green-grey mush in the refrigerator (all right, it doesn’t look that appetizing as a batter, but once it gets shaped into little patties and browned in the pan, it looks downright delicious!).
“What is this?” I asked my fiancé. “Are you going to deep-fry it?” I was already seeing grease splatters on the floor, the countertops, the wall. Living in a New York apartment, cleanliness can be a lost cause.
“Pan-fry,” he said.
That night, he shallow-fried the balls in our cast-iron skillet. Both of us stood over the skillet, supervising the cooking process.
We learned several things very quickly:
Do not put too much oil in the skillet. This is not a shallow-fry situation, like with breaded chicken or eggplant. The falafel just absorbs all the oil and gets really greasy.
For the best sear, flatten the falafel balls out into discs about ½-inch thick. That way all the surface area has contact with the pan and can get really browned and crispy. If they’re too thin, they might dry out inside, but if they’re too thick, they will stay mushy inside. It’s a balancing act.
You can achieve both great texture and cook on the patties by searing them on both sides on the stove and then popping them into a preheated oven. The oven dries them out a little bit so they’re not mushy on the inside.
Since that first night, I have made falafel many more times. I love cooking up a few in the morning to take to work as part of my packed lunch (if you do this, I suggest kitting them out with a little container of tahini sauce, some chopped lettuce, and pita chips). Most recently, I made a batch of mini falafel for a party and served them with a side of the tahini sauce for dipping. My friends absolutely devoured that platter.
Whatever you decide to make falafel for, keep in mind that you can tailor their size and the accompaniments to the scenario. If you’re running out the door, stuff them inside a pita with veg and a squirt of sauce. If you’re throwing them in the pan for a quick dinner after work, make a nice chop salad with some lettuce, cucumbers, and olives, and throw the falafel on top. If you’re serving them at a party, line them up on a platter like soldiers and garnish with diced cucumber and tomato and a dot of sauce . . . and don’t forget a big bowl of extra sauce on the side for easy dipping.
No matter what occasion you use them for, you can be confident: falafel will always be quick and easy to make, and serve as a delicious addition to any lunchbox, meal, or snack bar.
Enjoy!
Falafel with Tahini Sauce
(Serves 4)
For the falafel:
1 can chickpeas, DRAINED*
½ onion, chopped
Roughly 2 tablespoons fresh parsley**
Roughly 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro**
1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried hot red pepper
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons flour
Soybean or vegetable oil for frying
For the tahini sauce: 2 garlic cloves ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, or to taste ½ cup well-stirred tahini (Middle Eastern sesame paste)*** Juice of one lemon ¼ cup ice-cold water ¼ cup olive oil Approximately 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro Approximately 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
Special equipment: food processor, blender.
Method
For the falafel:
Drain chickpeas and dump into a food processor. Add onion, parsley, cilantro, salt, pepper, garlic, and cumin and pulse the ingredients lightly until they start to come together as one mixture. Don’t over-process; you want some texture! Add the baking powder and flour, and pulse again until the dry ingredients have disappeared into the mixture. Again, don’t overmix!
At this point, you can add up to 2 additional tablespoons if the mixture looks too wet. You should be able to pick it up and get it to hold a shape in your palm. Avoid adding flour if you can, since it can make the batter too doughy. No one wants a doughy falafel!
Scrape batter into a bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour so the batter has time to come together. Something sciency probably happens where the flour absorbs something from the chickpeas and the garlic and onions infuse their alliums into the batter . . . but I couldn’t tell you exactly what.
When you’re ready to cook your falafel, preheat a skillet on medium-high heat (cast-iron is preferable, as it gives you that nice sear!). When the skillet is hot, add vegetable oil, enough to coat the skillet and a little extra for insurance. Know that the falafel will absorb some of the oil when it first goes in.
Roll the falafel batter into balls in between your palms. You can make the falafel balls whatever size you like—I like ping-pong ball-sized—just keep in mind that the larger they are, the longer they will take to cook. If you go for larger and thicker ones, you’ll probably have to finish them in the oven after you have seared them on both sides.
Drop the balls into the hot, greased skillet and immediately, press them down to flatten slightly. You will want to do this the moment they go in. They’re going to flatten when you flip them over anyway, and flattening sooner rather than later ensures that you get an even area of sear on both sides. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the bottoms are crisp and toasty-brown, and then flip. Cook for 3-4 minutes on this side.
At this point, if the falafels are large, you’ll want to throw the pan into the oven (preheated to 350 degrees F) to finish cooking. I don’t often do this, and since size will vary cooking time, if you choose to finish them in the oven, go with your gut. Prodding them in the middle (like you would a steak) will tell you how first them are. You just don’t want them gooey in the center!
Once the falafels are cooked, remove to a baking tray lined with paper towels. Serve with pita chips, in a pita bread, with tahini sauce, with tzatziki . . . whatever your heart desires!
For the tahini sauce:
Mince the garlic cloves, and mash into a fine paste with the sea salt. I imagine that a morter and pestle would be work amazingly well for this, but since I live in the 21st century and not the stone age, I just scraped the garlic against the cutting board with my knife.
Add garlic paste to a blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until emulsified. Once everything is thoroughly blended, taste and correct the seasoning by add more salt or lemon juice . . . or tahini if you think it needs it. Make sure it’s made just the way YOU like it.
Serve with vegetable crudité, with pita chips, on falafel patties . . . you name it. This dip is perfect.
This recipe started life published by Joan Nathan in the NY Times. I have since modified it according to our preferences. The method is written by me.
*Do not forget to drain them! The first time I made the batter on my own, I dumped the liquid from the can (technically called Aquafaba) into the food processor with the chickpeas and it made the batter incredibly running. Don’t get me wrong; the falafel was still delicious, but it was as thin as a pancake. Unless you are planning to adapt these for a savory brunch item . . . which actually sounds delicious . . . dump the excess liquid out of the can before you go to the food processor!
**You should roughly chop the onion and garlic, but you don’t have to bother finely chopping the herbs; the food processor will pulse them down. Just make sure you don’t dump in the stems, as they can be bitter.
***A brief note about tahini before starting:
Tahini is a paste made of ground sesame seeds; think like peanut butter, except with sesame seeds instead. It’s delicious, but it can be ridiculous to work with. There are two main things to keep in mind:
Like that natural peanut butter that your mom used to get at her hippy-dippy co-op in the 90’s, it will separate when it sits and you must stir it before measuring out!
If you attempt to mix tahini with warm or room-temperature water, it will go all gritty and turn your lovely sauce into a nasty mess. YOUR WATER MUST BE ICE COLD to avoid this! Take it from someone that learned the hard way.
Originally posted July 2, 2019.
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