Israel – Delicious Falafel Balls

by David Smith

Introduction

Falafel is Israel’s national dish made up of famous chickpeas, a protein rich food. Falafel is a vegetarian or vegan food which is eaten as wraps or sandwiches also Falafel can be fried or baked. Falafel is eaten world wide but it’s mostly eaten In Eastern countries especially In Arabs. Many different countries try to prove that Falafel is originated from their country but wherever it came from, it is always considered to be a dish of Israel cuisine. In streets of Israel, falafel is served differently like it is served with a famous sauce hummus, pickle, bread and sauce that helps it to enhance its taste.

Falafel is made from

A traditional gluten free falafel is made up of ground chickpeas, hummus, spices, herbs and fava beans. These ingredients are then used to make patties but it’s traditional used to make balls. These balls are then baked or fried. Mostly, these are fried because a perfect falafel always has texture that’s crispy from outside and soft from inside and frying falafel gives it this type of texture. In Israel, falafel is available in restaurants but these are traditionally known as street food.

Methods of cooking

1-Deep fry

2-Pan fry

3-Baking

Preparation time: 50 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Total time: 60 minutes/1 hour

Servings: 20 falafels

Course: main course

Origination: Israel, Asia

Nutrition:

Calories: 80 kcal

Carbohydrates: 9 gram

Protein: 4 gram

Fat: 3 gram

Recipe of Falafel

Ingredients

1. Dried chickpeas = 1.5 cups (soaked in water for one night)
2. Onions = 1 small cup (chopped)
3. Parsley = 1 small cup (chopped)
4. Cilantro = 1 small cup (chopped)
5. Garlic cloves = 4
6. Salt = 1.5 teaspoon
7. Avocado oil (frying purpose)
8. Cumin seeds = 1.5 teaspoon
9. Green chilli = 1
10. Black pepper = half teaspoon
11. Flour of chickpeas = 3 tablespoons 
12. Baking soda = half teaspoon
13. Cardamom = half teaspoon

Procedure

• Soak dried chickpeas in water for a night. Use more water as chickpeas get bigger in size after soaking water.

• Drain chickpeas and add them into a blender.
• Add required quantity of salt, black pepper, cardamom, garlic, parsley, onion, pepper and cilantro in it.

• Blend the ingredients until a mixture is formed with a texture of sand. This mixture is known as falafel mixture.

• Take out the mixture and put it into a bowl. Add baking soda and chickpeas flour in the mixture, stir it and cover it.

• Refrigerate this falafel mixture for 60 minutes.
• Make falafel balls or patties using your hands or ice cream scoop.

• If the mixture is wet, add flour in it and if the mixture is dry, add water in it.
• After making falafel balls or patties, cook them with any of the method written above. Fry them for few minutes until colour changes to brown.

• After frying, take them out into paper towels that helps to soak extra oil.
• Falafel balls are ready to eat that are crispy outside and soft inside.

How to serve

Delicious falafel is served with pita and hummus sauce wrapped into bread or lettuce and some salad.

Important tips

1. A perfect falafel is crispy outside and soft inside. Make sure that the oil is not too much hot before drying because too much hot oil quickly fry outside layer of falafel but it’s raw from inside.
2. Falafel is fragile so fry them carefully. If it doesn’t attain its shape, you can use a trick of flour and water mentioned above
3. You can freeze falafel dough for 30-45 days.