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.
I’m so happy to find this site!, thank you for sharing your healthy recipes, I just began on the minestrone… yum, the pecan tart with strawberries and yoghurt looks very appealing and the falafel recipe I just came across…
I’m glad you found it too, Jane! Thank you for your comment. I love to hear from you.
The minestrone was beautiful as was the yoghurt no cook tart with berries and today I’ve made the marinara sauce to go with lentils and the beautiful lemon yoghurt blueberry cake.. divine, your recipes are my favourite at the moment!, thank you and it’s great as my daughter is vegetarian and so far she has loved all your food too
Fantastic Felafel! Easy and delicious. Loved the touch of cinnamon and the easy bake in the oven. I did make them in advance a few hours, placed on the oiled parchment lined pan as instructed and baked them later. No difference in quality from when I baked them directly after making them. Another new keeper! Thank you!!
You’re welcome! Thanks for the review.
I made these yesterday- they are SO good!!! But mine didn’t hold together like the ones in your picture. Should I have added someliquid to it, or a bit more olive oil? Also my processor didn’t grind it as finely as shown, so I’m sure that makes a difference as well. I’m so glad I found your website- everything looks so good! I tried the hummus too- YUM!!!
Hmm… if you followed the instructions, I wouldn’t necessarily add any additional liquid. The food processor texture may have caused it. Sorry it didn’t turn out for you, Monica!
Hands down the best falafels I’ve ever had! I don’t own a large food processor so I used my Cuisinart Mini Prep to smooth ingredients in 2 batches, then mixed together in a medium bowl.
Thanks for revisiting one of your favorite recipes! My family thoroughly enjoyed this one.
Hooray! Thanks so much, Jenny. I appreciate the star review.
I have to say, I was a bit unsure how these would turn out once everything was mixed together. Even using dried chickpeas instead of canned, it seemed too wet. But these falafel baked up beautifully and were tasty to boot! Thanks so much for the recipe, Kate!
I’m so happy to hear that, Amanda! Thanks for your comment. If you would like to leave a star review, I would really appreciate it!
This was amazing! At first I was worried because I soaked my chickpeas overnight and they were still hard, but the dough came together beautifully. These reheat really well! (I’ve reheated in the oven and in the microwave). Served with a yogurt sauce as a main dish. Simply fabulous, as always!
Thank you, for sharing Madeline!
These were so delicious! I served them with your hummus recipe, fresh veggies, and pita bread. Such a great meal – and further proof that good food doesn’t need to be fried!
I agree with you, Alyssa! Thanks so much.
Thank you! It was very easy to make and delicious as well. However, I made ahead for a dinner party and found that if you eat them cold, they are quite dry, and not really palatable, which was a huge disappointment. But hot, these falafels are amazing.
I’m sorry you were disappointed, Mar. These are best served warm. Thanks for your comment and review!
These were SO good! I doubled the recipe and so glad that I did. They were filling & fresh, not at all heavy or greasy. They reheated nicely for a great lunch the next day too. Thank you!
That’s great, Liz! Thanks so much.
I’ve made this recipe four times already since you posted it! It is so good and so simple to make! Thank you!
Love to hear that, Holly! Thanks for your star review.
Very good flavors! Mine were very crumbly, so maybe I’ll try a binder for future batches.
Hi Holli! I’m glad you like the flavors. They shouldn’t be crumbly. Interesting! Did was your mixture pretty smooth when you put it in the food processor?
Maybe I underprocessed them. Thanks for the tip!
Great party snack!
I made 5x the recipe for a group of 30 and it made three big trays full.
My chickpeas needed a full 20 hours soaking before they were soft enough to process.
I skipped the onion and added some radish instead.
They were pretty crumbly and hard to flip so I just drizzled the top with oil and didn’t worry about turning them. Once they were nicely crisp and browned, they held together.
Just made this for the second time. It has become a favourite in our house. The flavour profile is so good and I found they turn out extra crispy if you heat the oiled sheet pan in the oven while you’re processing the mix. This is an absolute winner – I’ve never made successful falafels at home before. Thank you!!
Thanks for sharing your tactic, Bec! I appreciate the review.
I didn’t even use oil and they turned out amazing and crispy! This was absolutely delicious Kate, even though I put in too much parsley it baked off to be less overpowering. I also added in a full tablespoon of cumin (I love it haha) and honestly I would 10/10 make this recipe again. You’re an absolute delight and have never let me down :)
Well, thank you! I’m glad you really enjoy it.
Hi Kate,
Not sure if you are aware of the dangers of eating raw legumes but this recipe makes me nervous. Typically legumes are to be boiled at least 15 minutes to remove the toxins that can make you sick. I know these are baked but it doesn’t seem like enough to remove the toxin.
I think its missing some more spices and the oven frying method sticks to the pan…
I’m sorry to hear that, Tom! Did you use the 1/4 cup oil to evenly coat the pan? If you did that, that’s a little puzzling.
So delicious. Since the weather here was unseasonably comfortable, we decided to cook the falafel on the grill. Cooking time was a little shorter than in the oven, but it turned out perfectly! We served it in fresh pita with some greens, hummus, and your Zhoug and Tzatiki sauces. Can’t wait to make it again!
Sounds like a delicious combination! Thank your comment and review, Ashley.
Great flavor !! Made them for 2nd time and used way less oil. The mix is very wet once processed and I had my doubts about the results. They came out fine. Will make them again. Easy.
Thanks for sharing, Denise! I appreciate the review.
I hate the taste of cilantro. Should I sub it in this recipe or will I not be able to taste it?
Would love to kick up the spice in this recipe, do you have any suggestions? Could I add jalapenos?
You could increase the amount of cumin, if you like. I haven’t tried with jalapeños.
I think of falafel as one of those foods that I’ll only ever eat at restaurants because they’re hard to make (and I hate frying), so I was intrigued to try this. The texture and crispiness are perfect, and I like how flavorful they are!
Thank you, Erika! I appreciate the comment.
I had seen this recipe and finally got around to making it, and I’m glad I did. These falafel were super delicious! They did not taste like the falafel I am used to, it might be the cinnamon which is different. They were so good and so insanely easy to make though, I’ll definitely be making them again.
I’m glad you did too! Thanks so much for your review.
These were incredible and SO easy to make! I loved it with the tahini dressing that you suggest. It made an amazing pita with just some lettuce, tomato and cucumbers!
Thanks for trying it, Kate! I appreciate the review.
Making these right now for the third time. I love this recipe. So many other falafel recipes fall short. I think she’s found the ticket with the soaked, but not cooked, chickpeas. I do all cilantro (not a parsley fan). Biggest problem? I really need to quadruple the recipe.
Thank you, Cara!
This is definitely a winner! I soaked the chickpeas overnight and made this for lunch, and the consistency was perfect. I couldn’t wait to have the leftovers for lunch today in a pita with your Best Tahini Sauce recipe. Thanks!!
I’m happy you think this is a winner, Annie!
SO good! I forgot to flip them until they had already been in the oven for 25 min, so I left them for 10 more on the other side. Turned out wonderful! Will definitely be making again :)
Thanks for your review!
you’re the only one who says bake it. I shallow fry falafel in olive oil. Almost every other chef I’ve looked at says fry it. One or two specifically said don’t bake it. I really think frying is the best.
Thanks for sharing, Phil! This method works well for me, but I do know there are other options out there too.
These rock! Making them again soon. Thank you for another great recipe!
Thank you, Deb!
I added some green chillis to spice it up. It turned out really well. Thank you for the awesome recipe.
Thanks for sharing! And you’re welcome, Rupal!
This recipe is great to make a large amount of falafel in a relatively amount of short time (once the bean soaking is taken into consideration). While it wasn’t superb, it was pretty good. There was a slight crunch, just not as much as I was hoping for. I think next time I will try increasing the oven temp 25-50 degrees. Both my kids and I felt the flavor was a bit underwhelming. Next time I will use my recipe’s spice/seasoning quantities which seems to have always yielded the perfect amount of flavor. We all enjoyed the touch of cinnamon, so I will be incorporating that into my recipe. Also, I would recommend doubling the cilantro. After trying the batter, I felt the parsley was too strong and the cilantro was lacking, so I added in the extra cilantro and it yielded a much better result. I loved the batter texture of the uncooked beans; it was extremely easy to work with. My kids are extremely picky about their Mediterranean cuisine, and while not expecting much when they found out I was baking it (they feared “I would be ruining what should have been a great meal”), they were pleasantly surprised, however (they finished off over half of my double batch). I used a cookie scoop and then flattened it out to save time. With a few tweaks, I think this recipe has the potentual of being outstanding. As is, it is a simpler, healthier way to enjoy good falafel.
Hi Melissa, Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m sorry this one didn’t hit it out of the park for you! Thanks for sharing your plan for next time! You can always increase the spice amount of your favorite spices too and looks like to plan to!
Hi,
Made these and they are delicious but quite dry..! Any idea why or how to make them more moist?
Thanks
Hi Tia, sorry to hear that! Were your chickpeas crunchy in the final product? If so, they needed more soaking time. Be sure your parsley and cilantro are packed, as those add moisture as well.
Hi, Kate Your Crispy Falafel recipe, and sauces, are delicious! Thank you for all your wonderful recipes. On the falafels, do you have any ideas on how to make the falafels bind together? We live at 9000 feet, and followed the recipe, but ours came out crumbly. Do you think I should add more oil, less chickpeas? Thank you!
Hi Kathrine, sorry to hear that! Were your chickpeas crunchy at all (like they weren’t soaked long enough)? If that’s not the case, it does sound like you might need a little more moisture, so I guess I would add a little more oil. Be sure your parsley and cilantro are packed, as those add moisture as well. I wouldn’t decrease your chickpeas. I’m sorry, I don’t have experience cooking/baking at high altitude so these are my best guesses!
Thank you for the recommendations, Kate! I appreciate it. Yes, cooking at this elevation is a bit tricky. Thank you TONS for all your great recipes. We are thoroughly enjoying them!
Hi Kate! Just made this fantastic recipe, and it blew me away! All I changed was that I scooped out only 2 teaspoons (and not tablespoons) of the mixture at a time to for the patties.
Thank you for all the amazing inspiration, I’ve got so much praise thanks to your recipes :) This one definitely goes on the must-make-it-regularly list, too.
You’re very welcome, Reka!
could i use vegetable stock instead of olive oi?
You really need oil here, sorry!
Love this recipe! Even my 2 picky daughters asked for more!! But the 2 times I’ve made it the falafel seems to fall apart. I’m sure I’m doing something wrong. Is there anything I can do to bind them better? Maybe it’s my food processor. The mix def doesn’t look like yours. It’s more chunky?
Hooray! I’m sorry you hear, though, the texture wasn’t what you were expecting. You want to make sure the texture is small, that helps it to bind better. Maybe increase the speed or time if you can!
I really love you right now. I love falafels but never made it because I don’t like frying. They came out moist on the inside and crisp on the outside. The only modification for me was I added cayenne pepper for a kick.
Thanks a lot
Ha, your sweet! Glad this is a great recipe for you, Tolu.
Delicious. Loved the sauce. Used it with my roasted cauliflower side, too!
I’m happy to hear that, Danielle! Thanks for sharing.
Hi, I tried this recipe. The flavours are amazing. I found that my falafel patties turned out a bit dry. Any suggestions how to make them a bit more moist?
Ok, these little babies are literally THE best falafels I have EVER had. I will be keeping this recipe, five out of five!! We had them with whole wheat pita, hummus, vegan pesto mayo, tomatoes, kalamata olives and spring greens. OMG sooo good. Thank You!!! You’re the best! I could cry they are so good!
I love hearing that, Connie!! Thanks so much for your raving review.
This recipe came out amazing! Mines looked a little more yellow maybe because I didn’t put as much cilantro. I did put some Masarepa, one egg, flour and more olive oil because my falafel mixture didn’t want to stick at first. Either way these came out great! I cannot wait to make them again. Could you give a recommendation on a good blender we can use instead of a food processor? Thanks in advance!
I’m glad you like it! Check out my shop page for my specific model, but I love my Vitamix! https://capital-fly.pro/healthy-kitchen-essentials/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
This was hands down the BEST falafel recipe I’ve ever tried. Actually, it was the BEST falafel I’ve ever eaten. The only change I made was to cut the recipe so I’d only be making 1/4 of it. Everything about this recipe worked perfectly. The cinnamon, which I was skeptical about because I tend to not like it outside of apple pie or toast, transformed the falafel from bland to having an outstanding aroma, and that somehow made it taste wonderful. I rehydrated the garbanzo beans for a full 24 hours and the texture was excellent. Now I wish I had only cut the recipe in half.
Hooray!! That’s so great to hear. Thanks for sharing and for your review, Kim.
Simply the best! I’ve been using canned garbanzos and frying my falafel until I ran across your recipe. What a difference the dried beans make. I soaked 24 hours and followed your recipe, adding a few things that I enjoy in my falafel (grated lemon rind, fresh lemon juice, cayenne and a couple dashes of worchestershire, lots of cracked black pepper). The texture was perfect from oven-baking, really deep flavor. I served mine with tzatziki along with diced red onion, campari tomatoes and warm naan bread. I will never go back to canned!
PS Your lovely and inspiring book, Love Real Food, arrived yesterday and I’m even more inspired. Thank you!
I’m so excited you got my cookbook, too! Let me know what you think, Michele.
Great falafel! We are adding this to our list of dinners. We put in a pita pocket with humus, cucumbers and tomatoes. So excited about this recipe.
Wonderful to hear, Amy! Thanks for your review.
I have done a felafel recipe with wet chickpeas, and they did come out pretty wet but I added almond flour and it didn’t alter the flavor or texture (just in case someone out here’s feeling pinched for time)
Thanks for sharing!
Made these tonight. We absolutely loved them. Thank you for the recipe. Thinking of adding some chili to them next time as I like spice.
You’re welcome, Gail!
Thanks for sharing! These turned out awesome. I used a little less than half the oil because our olive oil has a very strong flavor.
Thanks for sharing, Jenna!
I made this again today. Super wonderful, delicious recipe. The absolute best falafel I’ve ever had. Remarkable because I’m a meat and potatoes woman and generally don’t like anything but meat and potatoes. This recipe has me convinced there *are* good, no, excellent, alternatives.
Thank you for sharing, Kim!
I followed your recipe exactly and all i ended up with was a dried up crumbly mess. Did you forget to list a binder or an ingredient that holds them together?
Oh no! That shouldn’t have happened. Did you blend until smooth? The texture of the mixture really matters with this one. I’m sorry it didn’t turn out for you, Leiona!
I made these today and they were delicious and so crispy – wouldn’t have known they weren’t fried. Won’t be having shop bought falafels again! My whole family loved them.
Great to hear!!
I made your recipe with some older chickpeas that I had trouble getting to soften when cooked. What a great way to use them!The FK avor was fab. Thanks bunches.