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.
Am I doing something wrong?!
I’ve made this twice and both times they’re so dry :(
Such a shame, as the flavours are lovely!
Mine too. Tasty but dry and even drier when reheated. I thought maybe i didn’t process enough. Any ideas would be great!
Best falafel recipe ever ! Especially if you are trying to recreate Sweetgreen Hummus Tahina salad. They were soft on inside and a little crispy on outside and so flavorful. I did soak the chickpeas overnight. Loved this recipe !!!!
I added some of the soaking liquid and a little olive oil. They were wet when I formed them but came out perfect and not dry.
Hi Kellie and KIrstie,
Mine weren’t dry but easily would have been if I left them in the oven any longer, so maybe cut your cooking time down a little? Also, I didn’t dry my chickpeas after draining them so maybe that little bit of water helped keep them more moist. Not to say these are super moist but they aren’t dry. Try again! Btw, I’ve seen water added in other recipes.
We added some leftover aquafaba cooking water from cooking a different batch of chickpeas. Not sure if what you had in mind.
Deep fry them at 350 degrees until golden brown. This will lock in the moisture as opposed to baking it away.
Delicious.x
Thank you, Harie!
Another delicious and easy recipe! This website has been so helpful in my effort to include more vegetables in our diet.
I liked this recipe. My falafel were crumby in the end. I also would not add the cinnamon if I were to make this again.
Can I replace chickpeas with soaked and peeled fava beans? Very keen to try this recipe :)
Hands down the best falafel. I make a batch every week. Not even kidding, every week. We eat it as fast snack, take it with us on the go. There is never a left over for a salad or pita wrap. Thank you for posting it. Plus it’s baked, as I don’t fry anything.
Every week, that’s great! Thanks for sharing, Laura.
too soft…
I’m sorry you didn’t love this one!
I’m unsure if it is just me, but whenever I click on the nutrition information, it only shows up blank? I love your recipes so much, but as I have people I am feeding with strict dietary restraints, I am cautious of making them. Any suggestions?
I’m sorry you are having issues! This feature is a plug-in so acts like a pop-up. Ensure you have that enabled in your settings. Let me know if that doesn’t fix it!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I made this today and it was so delicious! I only wish I doubled the recipe bc we have none leftover for tomorrow! I followed your recipe to a T, and mine came out crispy on outside and moist on inside. I did soak overnight so I think that made a big difference. Also, I wanted something different than a salad so I made falafel burritos. I used whole wheat tortillas, falafel, your bomb tahini dill dressing and topped with shredded lettuce, kalamata olives, sliced cucumbers and a mango salsa. It was so good! This will now be my favorite go to falafel recipe and we’ll no doubt have at least once a week! Thank you!!
Do you need to cook the chickpeas after you’ve soaked them or can you use them raw?
You don’t need to cook until you have made them into patties, post soaking. Does that make sense?
What would you recommend for reheating after freezing? Thanks!
Please reply. I want to know too! Thanks!
I should have left a comment 5 years ago when I first made this recipe. It’s great and has become almost a staple in our vegetarian household. Making it for a Super Bowl party tomorrow! Thanks for all the great recipies, C+K, including this one.
I love that you have been making this for so long, Soren! Thanks for coming back for say just how much you love it.
Great recipe! Definitely cooking this one again. I didn’t have time to soak so I instant potted the chickpeas for 10 minutes and it worked great
Brendan Noggle — could you please explain how you used the Instant Pot?
You can use your Instant Pot for cooking beans fast if you use “beans, chili” setting. That would yield the same tender beans as if you soaked them overnight.
Leaving a comment on my own comment. Since cooked garbanzos won’t work, I would not use an Instant Pot. However, the IP is great to cook beans of any kind BUT NOT for this recipe.
This has become a regular at our house. One of the few dinners that pleases everyone in my large family. Love it. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Natalie!
I really love this recipe. I’ve made it several times and prefer it to falafel in restaurants. Have chickpeas soaking right now for a new batch. They are dry, so I eat them with spicy hummus and they are just delicious!
Thanks, Debbie!
This was my first try at making falafel, and my husband said it was absolutely the best falafel he’s ever eaten! I did use all parsley instead of the cilantro but that’s the only change I made. This will be a regular in my rotation (along with a number of your other recipes:) )
I’m glad you loved it, Jen!
I added some water into the mix and found they worked out pretty well then.
Thank you for sharing, Hazel!
Delicious recipe!!
Thank you, Sylvia!
Someone mentioned instant potting the dry beans for 10 min on the stove instead of soaking. I think ill try it that option. Soaking 4 hours and tben regrigerating is time consuming when u dont have the time. Also instant potting will probably add a little more moisture. I read that alot of people on here are having problems with dryness.
The flavours were delicious but unfortunately mine came out quite dry. Needed a lot of sauce just to eat them. Not sure where I went wrong?
Ours turned to complete mush….so sad, because it smelled delicious, but was a pile of goo.
Arwen, sorry to hear that! Is there any chance you used cooked/canned chickpeas instead of the specified dried chickpeas? Those are key.
Mine turned to goo too. We used dried chickpeas, soaked them 24 hrs then drained them. Followed the recipe. They were wet and impossible to form into patties. Then they crumbled when we tried to flip them. Where did we go wrong?
I made the baked falafel yesterday. My family loved it! I served it with your tzitziki and tahini sauces. My daughter-in-law said “This is a repeater!”
I love that you daughter-in-law wants it again! Thanks for sharing, Chiquita.
Hi, I’ve hard to find for white miso. Can you show me what it look like, pretty please. Thank you. BTW, loves your vegan foods!!
Miso is refrigerated, usually by produce and other refrigerated condiments. You find miso in health food stores (such as Whole Foods Market) and Asian grocery stores. It will be labeled next to the other miso options. I hope this is helpful!
Best way to reheat your frozen falalfels please?
Gently over the stove top or in the oven could work well. Or, if you are in a hurry, in the microwave.
Good recipe. Not hard to make. I used a little garden basil and rosemary too. Also marinated the chopped onion in lemon juice while the beans soaked. Baked at 390 for 20 min. For the sauce, went half and half with tahini and yogurt. Serve on salad greens. Yum.
Thanks for sharing, RI!
Hi, would I be able to use cooked chickpeas in this recipe?
Sorry Zak, cooked chickpeas will not work! Speaking from experience.
Canned chickpeas do work pretty well. I’ve been ultimately successful in using them. And I ended up with fantastic ball shaped falafel, thank you very much.
Some advice to those who struggled:
If you’re not vegan, a simple egg does wonders for my falafel at the very least.
I’m sorry this one didn’t turn out perfect for you. I appreciate the feedback.
Blew my mind. So easy, and came out perfectly! I think overnight soaking works best. It was like I had sneakily rub off to my favourite Middle Eastern restaurant. I ate them with homemade flat bread and greens, and eating them again for lunch in a salad with brown rice, parsley, spinach, roasted eggplant and cauliflower, with an olive oil and pomegranate molasses dressing. So good! Thank you for a recipe I’ll be making again and again!
Thank you for sharing!
How crucial is the miso to this recipe? Soy allergy over here but I love your recipes and this is one I’m really excited to try!
You don’t need to use the dressing for the falafel, although it is delicious! You could omit the miso or try my other tahini sauces :)
Question about using dried chickpeas…
I recently bought a box of falafel mix.
It’s a ground up mix.
just add water, sit for two hours and then shake and cook.
It was obvious it was using dried chickpeas…
My question is…. if I make a mix like this using ground dried chickpeas… would it work that I just soak them for 2-3 hours like the packet ones I bought?
Smallest pieces of chickpea may need less soaking time???
I hope that makes sense lol
Hey Alex! That’s a cool idea and seems logical to me, but I have never experimented to know for sure! If you figure it out, please report back. Not sure how you’re planning to grind the dried chickpeas, but be careful. They’re so dense I think they could potentially damage a food processor/blender.
My daughter made them for a school potluck. They we’re a big hit. I got to taste one and they’re amazing. Looks like I’ll have make my own.
Oh I love this recipe! It looks fairly easy to make so I won’t mess it up haha great recipe, thank you!
Wonderful to hear, Mateo! Thanks so much for your review.
Unfortunately I had the same experience. Really dry and not very nice despite following the recipe. Even worse the next day. Also a bit bland despite doubling up on herbs and spices. I have made a lot of winners from this blog but I have to say that this is not one of them (in my opinion)
Hi Leigh, really sorry to hear that! Are you sure you didn’t leave out the salt? These are more herbed and flavorful on the inside than most of the falafels I’ve eaten at restaurants and in the Mediterranean. Would love to hear from you when recipes turn out well, too!
Made this recipe today and when the boyfriend said “boo, we got this falafel making on lockdown” I knew we had a winner. I may have soaked the beans a little longer than normal and perhaps that helped with them not being as dry as others have said, who knows. They are amazing and looking forward to trying more of your recipes now that we are trying to be more aware if what we are eating.
Great, Amber! Thanks so much for your review.
A success! This is the first time I made a baked falafel , so appreciated by everyone. Served with choice for everyone to choose tazecki , cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, home made hummus olives and mixed greens in a very thin wrap.
Great to hear, Simone! Thanks for your review.
For tahini dressing , the elements supposed to be blended in blender or just whisked together ?
In a small food processor, combine all of the ingredients and blend well. Or, 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.
Thanks for your reply , for the tahini dressing , if I want to use dried dill and dried parsley instead of using fresh, how much teaspoon should I use ?
I tried it just now. It was a bit hard to make the paste into patties as it was breaking. Any solutiob for this?
Once patties were done and baked. It was lovely. My sister loved it!! For sure it needs to be eaten with the sauce as it is dry.
I love the flavor and the mix was lovely and moist before baking but unfortunately after they were baked they became really dry and hard. I baked another batch and baked just 20 minutes which was slightly better but they weren’t nice and golden. Any idea what I did wrong or how to correct it?
Thanks
Omg. I work from home and have been thinking about making this since last week. I soaked my chickpeas this morning at 11, put everything together at 4 during my lunch break. I did press my patties a little bit while forming them, to get out the excess moisture. I don’t have a food processor so I used my crappy blender. This came out so damn good. I start to wonder why I ever eat out. Best falafel I’ve ever had
Thanks for sharing! I’m so happy you loved it, Elecia!
These were great! Flavourful and nice and crispy on the outside. I made these for my 10-month old son, as I try to give him baby-friendly (non-choking hazard) adult food. We both gobbled them up. They were not dry at all, like some reviewers have mentioned. They were moist on the inside and crisp on the outside. I followed the recipe exactly, soaking the chickpeas for about 20 hours. The only issue was that it took waaay longer to cook than the 25-30 minutes mentioned in the recipe. I don’t know if it was my baking sheet, my oven, or what. It took 30 minutes for the first side to get browned, then another 25 for the other side. I might try pan-frying them next time. Thanks as always for the great recipe!
My go-to felafel recipe is Mollie Katzen’s from The Moosewood Cookbook. The kids were in the mood for felafel, but I was not feeling to clean a lot of oil spatter, so I wound up here. Great technique! I kept Mollie’s spices (turmeric/cumin/cayenne), subbed scallions for the red onion, omitted the cilantro and doubled the parsley. I only had 4 hours to soak the chickpeas, and would probably increase that to overnight next time, but these turned out nice and crispy with none of the irritation of panfrying! They get 4 forks up from this household :)
Hi Kate, I love ur recipes and cookie too! I made this falafel recipe by but mine did not keep their shape and mostly ended in pieces. Suggestions? Thanks!
I wanted to make this the other day and soaked my chickpeas for hours while I took my kids to the zoo. By the time we got back I could tell we would need to defer our falafel. The chickpeas were not nearly soft enough. I rinsed them and put them in the fridge to soak longer. Couldn’t cook them until tonight but the texture was perfectly fluffy (around 60 hrs of total soak time). A couple of patties crumbled but the rest held together. Very dry for the children who did not like my sauce, but that’s their problem! Served with cucumber/tomato/feta salad and cubed watermelon. Very filling.
Hi! Can I use the mix make the falafels and then after cooling freeze?
Just wondering what the consistency should be for the dried chickpeas prior to blending them? Mine taste raw and are about as crunchy as a carrot. Soaking 5.5hrs. Last week I “soaked” them in the instant pot and they ended up being cooked. The falafel was very wet and spread across the tray when cooked. Nice flavour which is why we’re trying them again!
I believe these freeze well! Sorry for my delay, V.
They came out great, not dry but a few minutes longer in the oven would have dried them out. I didn’t dry my chickpeas after draining them so there was a wee bit of water in the mix, I wonder if that helped keep them from drying out? I drizzled olive oil instead of coating the pan and they were still fine for me, not as crunchy as a deep fried but with an outer crust. This is a great recipe, I’ll be making them again and again, thank you!
That could be, it’s interesting! Thank you for sharing, Mary.
Delicious. I didn’t soak my chick peas long enough (just 4 hours) so there were still little bits but they weren’t too tough. Will definitely make again. Perhaps a double batch to freeze.
Thanks, Sachi!
Three for three. Made your tahini sauce, tzatziki, and falafels. Served them with home-made hummus, chopped cherry tomatoes, advocado, and feta, with fresh pita bread, and my meat-eating teenage sons and husband were thrilled. Everything turned out perfectly. Thanks!
P.S. I added an extra shallow-tablespoon of flax oil to the falafel mix, and while I used olive oil for the recipe, I lined the baking tray in peanut oil, which browned the falafels nicely, and kept their insides moist.
Thanks for sharing, Ann!
Made this at home for me and my husband and LOVED it! Bragged about it to my family and now they want me to make it for family vacation. My family is 30 people and I don’t know what equipment a beach house kitchen will provide, so I want to do as much prep ahead of time as possible. Do you think I can make and freeze the falafel before baking, drive them 8 hours and then bake?
Hooray!! I’m so glad your husband loved it and he should brag about you! Right! :) Thanks for sharing. I haven’t tried it. I would be hesitant that they might dry out. I know others have froze the cooked version with luck.
I want to make this recipe with a can of chickpeas rather than the raw chickpeas. Is 1 can (400g with liquid/240g drained) enough?
Agree with comments. They are quite dry but very tasty so I will make them again and add water to the recipe or cook less time.
I’m sorry you didn’t love these and they didn’t workout well for you. Water might not work well and cause it to not bind. I would maybe try a little more olive oil, if you need, and watch your cooking time. Your oven may run a little warmer than some. Ovens can be like that, tricky things!
They were actually very good. Just a tad dry. I will reduce cooking time. Plan on making them often. Definitely a keeper.
I can do without the cinnamon. A little less cilantro, and I still prefer them fried. They did not brown evenly at 15 minutes when it was time to turn them. I removed them from the oven and fried them. The tahini sauce is very good. My family loved the falafels.
I’m sorry you didn’t love this version, Ray. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I would live to make this recipe, but I’m a little confused. After I soak the chickpeas,
do I cook them before making the falafel?
No need to cook first. Soak, then process. They will bake once you bake the falafel. I hope this helps!
Thanks
Mush, completely mush!
I tried another recipe before this, and it did not turn out. This one worked like a charm. Crispy and it holds together well. I paired mine with fresh lettuce, diced tomatoes, fresh garlic and sour cream. Great veggie meal!
I’m really glad you tried this one and liked it, Jessi!