Baked Falafel

There is not enough falafel in this world.  Worse, there is not enough baked falafel.  This recipe will help to fix that – everyone wants more falafel and fewer calories, right?

You will need:
For the falafel:
-Cooked chickpeas/garbanzo beans (I used canned, but if you’re an enthusiast, go for it!)
-A little flour
-Onion
-Garlic
-Lemon juice
-Possibly a little Greek yogurt
-Cumin
-Other spices, as desired (coriander is popular, as well as sesame seeds, paprika, and parsley)
-Garlic
-Olive oil

For the tzatziki (if you don’t have some readily available):
-Not-sweet pickles (You don’t want to hear me rant about how sweet pickles are an offense against nature)
-Onion
-Greek yogurt
-Pickle juice, if desired

You can make hummus, if you want, by grinding chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, and spices in a food processor or blender, but it’s also super easy to find in every supermarket ever.

For serving falafel:
-Whichever veggies you want (My local falafel stand uses cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and basically every other vegetable you could want)
-Pita pockets or tortillas (falafel wraps are awesome), or even pasta or rice – I don’t judge

To make falafel:

If you don’t have a food processor, this is going to be a lot of work.  If you do, be glad that your mom didn’t accidentally hide it for the holidays (Hi, mom!) and start mincing that onion.  For each can (mine were 15.5 oz., or about 2 cups) you’ll want half a small onion, or a quarter of a large onion.  If it starts stinging your eyes, put on some goggles.  Go ahead and mince some onion for the tzatziki, too.  I’ll leave that amount up to your discretion, but a tablespoon or two should be enough.

Now, peel and grate one medium to large clove of garlic for each can of garbanzos you use.  Toss the beans, onion, and garlic into a bowl and start mashing, or chunk the onions and throw it all into a food processor, along with all the other ingredients, which I will get to soon.  Good options for mashing garbanzos are pastry cutters and potato mashers.  Now add a tablespoon or so of lemon juice; about two tablespoons flour; and any spices you want to add (cumin is mandatory, but others are good) and mix it all together.  I found that it was best to use my hands, as a wooden spoon just wasn’t thorough enough.  Taste it and adjust the seasonings.

If it’s too dry, add a little spoonful of yogurt.  You want it to be really thick, though.

To cook the falafel, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (not absolutely necessary, but it keeps things tidier) and either spray it with olive oil spray or spread out a couple tablespoons of olive oil with a bit of paper towel.  Pour about a tablespoon into a condiment bowl or other small dish (my family does Asian food all the time, so we have a ton of condiment bowls).  Form the dough into ping-pong-ball-sized balls (I don’t really play ping-pong, but from experience I know how big falafel are supposed to be) and put them on the baking sheet.  They won’t spread out much, so you can crowd them a little, so long as they aren’t touching.

Dip two fingers in the oil you set aside and put it on your palms.  Rub your palms together.  Repeat once or twice until they’re fairly greasy.  Take a falafel ball and roll it between your hands until it is coated in olive oil.  Put it back.  Put a little more oil on your hands and repeat until every falafel ball is coated.  This is to replace a little bit of the oil that you are not going to fry your falafel in, so that the falafel are rich and flavorful, but not TOO rich.  Bake the falafel for 15 minutes or until done.  They are ready to serve immediately, and should come off the foil easily because of all the olive oil you used  The bottoms will be nicely browned, the tops will be a little dried out, and the insides will be soft and smooth.

To make tzatziki:

Use half a large pickle or a few small pickles.  Cut into thin slices (I quartered mine; small pickles probably wouldn’t need any lengthwise cuts) and put in a bowl.  Mince about two tablespoons of onion and put that in the bowl.  Spoon in some Greek yogurt (I would estimate I used about a cup), grind on some pepper, and mix thoroughly.  If you want it thinner and saltier (I tried mine on crackers), add pickle juice.  If you want it thinner and not saltier, use water and/or the acid of your choice (apple cider vinegar and lemon juice are both good options, and will make it nice and tangy).

Some people insist that you should mix your hummus with water to make it actually a sauce, bit only do that if you want it to be a sauce and not a spread.  I slathered a couple tablespoons onto a tortilla; added a nice handful of spinach and five or six falafel; and finished it up with some tzatziki, then rolled it into a wrap.  My dad had two such wraps, and he enjoyed it even though he generally doesn’t like falafel.  Enjoy!