Crispy Falafel
This crispy baked falafel recipe is so easy to make and tastes incredible! Serve your falafel in pita sandwiches or salads. Gluten free.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
Raise your hand if you love falafel! I’ve gone back into the archives to highlight my all-time favorite homemade falafel recipe. Making falafel at home can be tricky, but this recipe is easy.
Six reasons to love this healthy falafel recipe:
- These falafels are golden brown and crispy on the outside. The insides are tender, delicious, and full of fresh herbs.
- They’re baked instead of fried, so they contain significantly less fat than fried falafel. And your house won’t smell like fried food for days. Winning!
- Once your chickpeas are sufficiently soaked, the falafel mixture comes together in no time. If you have someone to help shape the patties, they’ll come together even faster.
- These falafels are gluten free and vegan, so they’re a great party appetizer.
- These falafels freeze well, so they’re a fantastic protein-rich option to keep on hand for future salads and pita sandwiches.
- On that note, this recipe is easily doubled! See recipe notes.
Are you convinced yet? Let’s make some falafel!
How to Make the Best Homemade Falafel
Bake it, don’t fry it. I say this because frying requires a lot of sizzling hot oil, and that scares me. I also don’t have a good vent over my oven to take the fried food smell far, far away. Plus, you can use a reasonably amount of heart-healthy olive oil in the baked version.
Coat your rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. That way, you get a fried effect in the oven, and you don’t have to brush the little falafels individually with olive oil. Winning!
Use dried chickpeas, not canned. Canned chickpeas do not work for falafel. They’re far too wet. If you try to use canned chickpeas instead of dried and soaked chickpeas, you’ll end up with sad falafel pancakes. Some recipes try to counteract the wetness by adding flour, which significantly dulls the flavor and makes the texture more doughy.
Soak the dried chickpeas for at least four hours. If your chickpeas aren’t sufficiently softened, you’ll have unpalatably tough pieces of chickpea in your falafel. There’s just no workaround here.
Choose your dried chickpeas wisely. Try to buy your dried chickpeas from a store with high turnover, because old chickpeas need longer to soften. If you have options, pick the chickpeas that are the smallest, since they’ll soften faster.
Watch How to Make Crispy Falafel
Falafel Serving Suggestions
Serve falafel as an appetizer, wrap it into a pita sandwich, or add it to salad for a protein-rich topping. Falafel goes great with any of the following ingredients:
- Pita bread, warmed or toasted (tear it up for pita “croutons”)
- Fresh greens (such as spring greens or chopped romaine)
- Tomatoes, sliced
- Bell peppers, cut into strips
- Cucumber, thinly sliced
- Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
- Raw red onion, thinly sliced, or quick-pickled onions
- Feta cheese, crumbled
- Sauce: Something creamy like tzatziki, hummus, or tahini sauce, and maybe a spicy sauce like zhoug or shatta, too
Here’s a tahini dressing recipe that goes great with this falafel, too:
- 1/4 cup tahini
- Zest and juice of 1 small lemon
- 1 tablespoon white miso
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed
- 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
- Pinch of cayenne
- 1/3 cup water
In a small food processor, combine all of the ingredients and blend well. You can also whisk the ingredients together by hand in a small bowl, just note that you’ll need to chop the fresh herbs and zest more finely than you would if you were using a food processor.
Please let me know how you like these falafel in the comments! I hope you love them as much as I do. ♥
Crispy Falafel
This homemade falafel recipe is absolutely delicious, and remarkably crispy! Be sure to allow 4 hours soaking time for the chickpeas, preferably overnight. Then, the falafel mixture is super easy to make in a food processor. Recipe yields 12 to 13 falafels (see notes on how to double).
Ingredients
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup dried (uncooked/raw) chickpeas, rinsed, picked over and soaked for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours in the refrigerator
- ½ cup roughly chopped red onion (about ½ small red onion)
- ½ cup packed fresh parsley (mostly leaves but small stems are ok)
- ½ cup packed fresh cilantro (mostly leaves but small stems are ok)
- 4 cloves garlic, quartered
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon (about 25 twists) freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- With an oven rack in the middle position, preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour ¼ cup of the olive oil into a large, rimmed baking sheet and turn until the pan is evenly coated.
- In a food processor, combine the soaked and drained chickpeas, onion, parsley, cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon, and the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Process until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Using your hands, scoop out about 2 tablespoons of the mixture at a time. Shape the falafel into small patties, about 2 inches wide and ½ inch thick. Place each falafel on your oiled pan.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, carefully flipping the falafels halfway through baking, until the falafels are deeply golden on both sides. These falafels keep well in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, or in the freezer for several months.
Notes
Adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook.
Make-ahead option: I haven’t tried this, but the original recipe notes that the uncooked falafel patties can be refrigerated on a parchment-lined baking sheet, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to 2 hours before baking.
How to double this recipe: Preheat the oven with two oven racks near the center of the oven. Double all of the ingredients. If you have a large food processor (guessing 11+ cup capacity), you can mix all of the ingredients at once. Use two baking sheets, and swap their positions (top to bottom, bottom to top) when you flip the falafel halfway through baking.
Recommended equipment: I love my 11-cup food processor (affiliate link).
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Hi Kate! Love your recipes. If I don’t have a food processor, do you think I could use my vitamix or will it be too thick?
Sure, you can try it! Let me know what you think.
I imagine I am not the only tired mama to add the oil to the food processor along with the other ingredients and find myself with liquidy batter! I noticed my mistake after it was done and added 2 eggs to see if the falafel will bind OK while baking. Ugh! And I doubled the recipe too!
Otherwise, I frequently find your recipes come up with my searches and have been very pleased with them!
These were awesome!! Thank you for the recipe – we love your blog and books!
I followed your recipe but after I made the “patties”, I chilled them for 30 minutes or so. Then I used our air fryer function on the oven at 340F for 18-19 min and brushed each falafel with a bit of olive oil on both sides so they would brown.
Delicious! Not as brown as yours but the flavor and texture were awesome – thank you so much
The falafel came out great. I froze a bunch and heated them up from the freezer as needed with the air fryer. So crispy and yum.
I have tried *several* baked falafel recipes but kept going back to deep frying them because no recipe was close enough. This one was the closest I’ve found! I doubled it just for my husband and I and still would have liked more so I may triple or quadruple it next time :)
Hooray! I’m glad you tried this one and loved it.
I love every recipe of yours I have tried! I’ve been looking at this recipe for awhile now & finally trying it. Quick question- I never use dried beans… do I soak the chickpeas in hot or cold water? Thank you!
Hi! You can just soak them at room temp for 4 hours or put them in the refrigerator to soak up to 24 hours. Room temp water to start is fine.
I have a hard time getting these to hold together. I soak the chickpeas for 24 hours and follow the recipe. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. This time I baked them in a pan. I love the flavor but they are crumbly.
Hi Carol, Do you know how fresh your chickpeas are? Are you processing them fine?
My local organic market has been out of chickpeas for ages. I bought these at a NC chain grocery but they sell good quality things. Maybe I didn’t process them enough. I have recently moved back to the US from overseas. I don’t have a food processor yet and used a nutribullet. When I made them in Germany they were fine. I’ll have to try again and process them more smoothly. On a good note, I made a great yogurt, cucumber, dill sauce for them.
Though they might not work in this recipe, you can absolutely use canned chickpeas for falafel with successful results! In fact, every Greek, Egyptian and other Middle Eastern restaurant owner I’ve asked (and I’ve asked a lot of them) about whether I need to use dry beans has laughed. They all use canned, for their hummus, too. I’m not picking on you; I post this comment on other recipe sites that say this, because I think it’s important to know that traditional falafel does not lose its flavor, texture or authenticity if it’s made with canned chickpeas.
I love this recipe so much. They cook perfectly in the airfryer! I’ve tried other recipes in the past but this one is the best.
That’s great, Greta!
Thank you! I will try that next time.
This is my new go-to falafel recipe. Perfect as is. For those having trouble with the mixture, you can try putting in the fridge for 20 mins before forming. Use a mini spatula to flip them. And as Kate as said, ensure you process until smooth. This might take more than a minute. Can’t wait to make them again.
First time making falafels , a wonderful recipe. Will be making again . S
Great to hear, Maggie! I appreciate your review.
My partner has made this recipe a number of times and the flavor is AMAZING but they always turned out a little crumbly. I’m not trying to place blame here or anything, but, I made them last night and followed the recipe – they turned out perfectly. We love this recipe and how easy it is! Things we did differently, I followed the directions & he cooked the chickpeas rather than soak and made them ~1tbsp in size. We always put them in a whole wheat pita w tomato, red onion, olives, cucumber, feta, and any tzatziki like sauce we may have on hand (we’ve used cashew cream a few times too) and it is restaurant quality.
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thank you for sharing how you made it.
We had routinely been buying pre-made falafels to have on hand for easy/ quick lunches. We’ve loved every recipe we’ve made from your blog, so we decided to give this a spin and see if we could stop buying pre-made… the verdict is: yes! These falafels are SO delicious. They were relatively easy to make, have a more pleasant texture (we did soak the beans for the full 24h) and even better flavor than what we were buying. I love the addition of cinnamon to the mix as well.
We made as part of a bowl with quinoa, tomatoes, cucumber, hummus, feta and greens. Sooooo good!
I make a double batch of these about every three weeks. Changes I made are I include one Jalapeno and leave out the cinnamon. Instead of cooking them in olive oil I put parchment paper on the cookie sheet. They don’t get as crispy but are still delicious and have fewer calories.
Thank you for sharing how you made this, Deborah!
Hi Kate hope this finds you well. I am going to make a batch and a half tomorrrow for guests but as I am making a full dinner I want to prepare and bake them in the morning. As they will be cool by the evening please tell me how and what length of time I should reheat them so as to not spoil them or dry them out thank you so much x ps I am from the UK so please be kind enough to revert back soonest. All the very best and thanks for all your very delicious recipes xx
Hi! Sorry for the delay. How did they turn out?
Love this and many of your other recipes. Thanks so much. What I would really appreciate would be the possibility to make notes as I often make minor changes over time :) Keep up the good work and have a great year!
Can I use chickpeas from a can for this?
Hi Sarah, these are best made as written. Sorry!
I couldn’t find dried garbanzo (chic peas). I used canned ones but I put them on a cookie sheet (lined with parchment paper) and baked them at 325F for 15 minutes. This removed some of the water and the recipe worked well for me.
They’re amazing! Cooked them so many times.
If the batter doesn’t hold well, it’s more likely you food processor is not strong enough. When it happens to me, I transfer the batter in a ball and use stick blender to process the mixture further and it helps.
Also, I make them slightly smaller so they’re even more crispier and cook a bit quicker.
That’s great to hear, IK!
Could canned garbanzo beans be used?
This is best as written. Sorry!
In this recipe and others what could I use to replace the oil?
I just made this recipe and the flavor is amazing but I have a question..I don’t have a food processor so used a hand chopper for the herbs and chickpeas but it wasn’t smooth and then I wasn’t able to shape it in balls, is a food processor required to make that happen? Still loved the flavor and am so happy to be able to make them!
The flavor of these is fantastic. A little labor intensive, but well worth the effort. I always make a double batch and freeze the extra. My only issue is that they tend to be dry. What am I doing wrong?
I’m sorry to hear that. How long are you soaking the chickpeas for?
This time i only soaked for the minimum of 4 hours, but have soaked overnight previously and they still have seemed a bit dry. They are moist when I am making them into the patties though.
I have made this recipe a staple of my weekly food prep. I always make a double batch when I cook it so it last me about 2 weeks. I leave out the cinnamon due to an allergy to it but add in a jalapeno. The big change that I made is I cook them on parchment paper instead of in the olive oil. I still use the one tablespoon of olive oil in the mix. They are still delicious but lower in calories. When I input it into MyFitnessPal it calculates that 3 are about 100 calories based on the size I am making. I soak my beans for 24 hours, and change the water halfway through the soak.
Because of lack of hand control, I cut myself badly on a food processor and won’t use one again. Will a blender work to make a smooth mixture?
You can try it! Let me know what you think.
I love to make a batch of falafel and take them to work all week for lunches, but the fried versions (while super delicious) always feel too oily for a routine weekday. I just made these and they’re so good!! They are deliciously crispy on the outside and soft inside. They did come out a little dense though – any idea what I can do to make them fluffier? I’m wondering if I may have over-processed the mixture?
Thanks for an awesome recipe! It’s going to become a go-to for me for sure.
Thank you for sharing, Meghan! I appreciate your review.
So do the chic peas need to be soaked for 4 hours and refrigerated over night?
Hi, if you soak them longer than 4 hrs, they need to be in the refrigerator.
I made a double batch (because how can you live with 12 or 13 falafel?????). It pretty much filled my 13-cup food processor, so I wouldn’t recommend trying it in an 11-cup one.
Be sure your cumin is no more than 6 months old, because that is an important flavor in falafel, so you want it to be strong. Mine was old, so my falafel are a little boring, but That is NOT the fault of the recipe.
For portioning, use a 1/4-cup measuring cup, and scoop up just half of that, then just drop it into your palm. It is very wet, and drops out easily, then easily rolls into the discs. You can make them a little bigger, if you want. I think mine were about 2 1/2 Tbls, and 15 of them fit perfectly on a half sheet pan.
I make this recipe time and time again with fantastic results.
Great to hear, Mary!
Hi Kate,
Is it possible to use canned/ cooked chickpeas instead of uncooked/raw chickpeas in this recipe?
Hi Nina, this recipe is best as written.
What a great recipe. I’ve already made them twice in a week. Mine held together perfectly, and I followed the recipe exactly. For the second batch, I added a bit more cumin, cinnamon and salt (was surprised some comments said it was too salty?!). The original recipe was great, the flavours were more subtle (to me) so I wanted to try the next batch with a bit more for my own tastes and loved it. I’m obsessed and have been making falafel salads- put the falafels on top of greens (spinach and arugula tonight), with radishes, cherry tomatoes, Persian cucumbers, grated carrots, shallot and tahini dressing. SO good.
My only issue is that they were getting a bit stuck to the baking sheet when flipping them, despite putting a thick layer of oil on the pan.
Thank you for sharing, Paulina!
I have no idea what I did wrong. Over half of them crumbled on the pan. I’m giving 5 stars bc they tasted great and I truly believe I probably did something wrong. I’m going to try them again, and I’ll let you know.
Oh no! How long did you soak the chickpeas?
I normally love your recipes, but this one is a disaster for me. Have tried it twice now. Followed the instructions exactly, and wound up with a melted mass of gunk that doesn’t hold together. So much work and so disappointing.
I’m sorry to hear that! Did you check the date on your chickpeas? Sometimes that can impact things.
Absolutely love these. They reheat well and are so full of flavor. I’ve made them multiple times and are now one of my go-to vegetarian recipes!
That’s great to hear, Nancy!
Great flavor, thank you! But mine were a bit dry. Any suggestions? Not sure if they are supposed to be like that? Haven’t had falafel enough to know lol
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t love the end result. They are a patty, so not super moist. But, they should stay together without falling apart. Does that help? I’m glad you were able to enjoy the flavor.
I soaked them overnight. They were still chunky when i made them into patties, and i think you would need a lot more oil to make them smooth. (It would be helpful if you added a picture of your mixture before you made them into patties). I found they didn’t stick together very well when I was forming the patties which made it hard to turn them half way through. They did not resemble yours at all. Having said all that, the flavour is delicious! I will try to process them longer next time. The tahini recipe was also very tasty!
The mixture wouldn’t stick together enough to form patties. I even tried using a cookie scoop but the mixture just fell apart on the baking sheet. I had to dump the whole thing out. Bummer :(
I’m sorry to hear that. How long did you soak the chickpeas for?
Sorry for the late comment. Do you cook the chickpeas before blending? I really fancy making the recipe.
Hi Tracy! They will cook once in the oven in patties.
I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out great! Prior to making these I wasn’t sure if I liked falafel because when I had it before it was dry or overcooked or bland. These have a lot of flavor and were moist. I had some in a salad with Caesar dressing and also dipped some in a garlicky sauce. Both were tasty. I am looking forward to having some more for lunch and will definitely make again!
I love to hear that! Thank you for sharing, Kathleen.
Is it correct that you DON’T cook the garbanzo beans before food processing???
Hi! No need to cook before, just soak per instructions. They will cook in the oven.
Just made these they are delicious! How would you recommend reheating them please.
These are great reheated in an oven or microwave. I have reheated in my counter top oven before and like the results!
I just made these and they came out delicious. I needed to make them even healthier, so I lined the pan with parchment with cooking spray on it. Then lightly sprayed oil over the patties. They were very good. I halved the garlic and added more cumin to our taste. Oh, and I accidentally soaked them for too long ( 48 hours), but it was totally fine.
Thank you for a great recipe!
I have made a lot of recipes from Cookie and Kate and never make internet comments, but WOW. These are awesome! Made the tahini sauce above to go along with it as well. Even my selective toddler approved of both!! First time making these, made a double batch so I would have some to freeze. Was planning to try the tip for swapping racks in the oven like the notes say but the ones on the top top rack basically didn’t brown so just finished the bottom in the same spot and cooked the ones on the top rack longer and flipped an extra time. Came out fine. Will be making these again.
Hooray! That’s great, Julia. I appreciate your comment.
Hi,
I love your recipes, they are always a big inspiration for healthy cooking. I also like how I can rely on them, because you test them until the result is perfect.
This falafel recipe is great, I made them many times and they are always so good.
I rarely have better when eating outside.
Never had a problem with them falling apart or being too dry if I followed basic instructions and suggestions.
I don’t usually post comments, but as a big falafel enthusiast, I had to.
I will for sure keep cooking by your recipes.
Thank you!
You’re welcome, Gabi! Glad my blog is a resource you can trust.
Love these! I have a hard time keeping the Pattie’s together but they are still delicious, thank you for so many great recipes.
Love the sauce! How do you reheat falafel patties after freezing?
You can gently reheat in the microwave, or oven once thawed.
These were good but a little dry. I think I’ll try adding a flax egg into it to get it to bind better.
I love this as a base recipe. For true flavor, I add tX the amount of onions and herbs. Still works without disintegrating.
I made these tonight from my freeze. I had frozen them uncooked, but had formed them in my super cube trays (smallest size they have)which is probably about two tablespoons. When they were frozen, I put them into bags that had all the air removed for long term storage.I thawed them and baked them (actually air fried them in my Breville at 375) for 30 minutes. Crispy and moist. Perfect! They had been living in my freezer for several months!
Your falafel recipe looks good but am surprised to see that yours has omitted chickpea flour! What is your experience with it or? Thanks for sharing. Am most appreicative.
I recommend this method for best results. I hope you try it!
Great recipe. I used a 2-inch in diameter measuring cup to get a nice rounded patty and then oiled a rubber spatula to scoop them off the prep table onto the cooking sheet. The stayed together nicely.
Also, chilling the mixture also helps to keep the form.
Thank you for sharing, Stephen!
I absolutely love this recipe! The first time I gave it to my husband he didn’t believe it was vegetarian! The only thing I’d say is that I usually have to add a lot more olive oil to the mixture than what the recipe says–I usually add a little at a time while blending until it gets to the paste consistency. But otherwise it’s perfect.
Thank you for sharing, Jess!